So do you think the Indian Linux community can and should be doing something about this?
Talk to me. I have a budget, and no ideas.
Did you see what the kerala govt is doing?
Another thing that can be done is to have NASSCOM go after the Ritchie Street / Lamington Road / Nehru Place etc petty assemblers who are doing this, and force them to stop bundling pirated windows software with PCs that they sell.
Recent news = Ritchie street in Madras rapidly emptied itself of pirated VCD / DVD shops, after the TN government warned that it'd throw VCD pirates in jail.
Now back to Kerala -
http://www.hindu.com/2004/10/22/stories/2004102209060700.htm
Kerala kickstarts Linux usage with 100-plus help centres By Anand Parthasarathy
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 21. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it — ran American humorist Mark Twain's quip about the weather. It can just as well be applied to the dozens of well-meaning but impractical initiatives attempting to help lay computer users in India migrate from proprietary systems to the free-and-open environment of Linux — if they so choose.
LiTE centres
Now, appropriately enough, from the 100 per cent literacy State comes a down-to-earth initiative that may yet prove Mark Twain — and nay-sayers of open software — wrong: A low key ceremony in the office of the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, on Wednesday, saw the launch of a programme anchored by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), where 107 computer training institutes spread across all 14 districts of Kerala have been beefed up as `Linux Technology Extension (LiTE) centres.'
Crucial service
Every centre would soon provide customers with practical help in configuring their PCs around the Linux operating system — a crucial service since professional help is often required in finding the necessary `drivers' that will make popular peripherals such as printers, CD/DVD drivers, webcams, scanners and modems, work smoothly with Open Source software.
Training programme
The centres will also provide training in Linux applications, in installing the `OpenOffice' suite and will sell for a nominal cost C-DIT-developed tools such as the `Kairali Linux' distribution, localised for the Malayalam font, as well as one of the first Indian language primers on Free Software, the Malayalam-language book, `Swathanthra Softwayerum GNU/Linuxum,' which is priced at just Rs.55.
`Practical problems'
The author of the book and C-DIT Director, Achuthsankar S. Nair, told The Hindu : "We feel the debate on free versus proprietary software is best left to academics.
For ordinary people who for whatever reason — economic or ideological — want to migrate to Linux, there are a lot of practical problems and many hardware-related irritants remain. We would like to make migration easier — particularly for the thousands in Kerala who are left out of the computer revolution because there are few tools in Malayalam."
A small but dedicated Open Source Technology (OST) Team at C-DIT is currently training the resource persons who will soon fan out to the 100-plus LiTE service centres in the State. Many of the trainees insisted on starting their training on Saraswathi pooja day during Dussera this weekend.
"We are making our Open Source `Vidyarambham' this year," one LiTE centre head said.
Instructional CDs
Earlier, C-DIT also helped the Kerala State IT Mission with instructional CDs to back the Akshaya e-literacy programme. User enthusiasm forced the centre to quickly complement the original Windows-based version with another based on its own Kairali Linux version.
Malayalam version
It has also created a Malayalam version of a popular CD — Chithrakkuduka— containing thousands of `ethnic' clip art pictures and music tracks with an ethnic Kerala flavour.
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