Newly elected Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced the distribution of 9.12 lakh free laptops to students. The state-run Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) has invited international competitive tenders for this big order.
T Shrinivasan, coordinator, ILUGC(Indian Linux Users Group-Chennai), says, "Assuming that the basic cost for the proprietary OS licence is Rs 1000, the cost of just the licences for the 9.12 lakh laptops will be a whopping amount of Rs 91.2 crore.
Incidentally, the antivirus software is offered as a part of the package for just one year. This implies that the students will have to pay to renew the licence every year. The other option is that they opt for a pirated version of it. In the case where students choose to renew the licence and anti-virus software, the chances of them approaching the right people are few.
Besides, it is a well known fact that Microsoft provides support for its products only for a stipulated time period. There have been no comments on how the students would get technical assistance once the product is officially withdrawn from the market.
Edubuntu is aimed at students. Apart from that, the user can customise the laptop for future needs such as scientific research, electronics and software development, etc. These operating systems can be customised to the extent that local languages (like Tamil) can also be incorporated. This can be appealing for the student community. The open source OSs are, by and large, free from viruses, which ensures a more stable system.
Free and Open Source Software is more beneficial than any proprietary system in many other ways. Being free of cost in nature means less expenditure for the government. Apart from this, no licencing fees are required for the other software like an anti-virus, since applications running in the open source OS are also free. This reduces expenditure for the user as well. The free operating system can be customised to suit the needs of the students, by pre-loading the OS with educational applications and study materials.
Edubuntu is aimed at students. Apart from that, the user can customise the laptop for future needs such as scientific research, electronics and software development, etc. These operating systems can be customised to the extent that local languages (like Tamil) can also be incorporated. This can be appealing for the student community. The open source OSs are, by and large, free from viruses, which ensures a more stable system.
Free and Open Source Software is more beneficial than any proprietary system in many other ways. Being free of cost in nature means less expenditure for the government. Apart from this, no licencing fees are required for the other software like an anti-virus, since applications running in the open source OS are also free. This reduces expenditure for the user as well. The free operating system can be customised to suit the needs of the students, by pre-loading the OS with educational applications and study materials.
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