An interesting blog post that touches upon the same subject: and serendipitously provides a very powerful reason for engineering colleges in particular to be more aware of and to foster the environment of open knowledge working. http://manypossibilities.net/2011/12/everyday-internet-miracles/
I agree with Amir's point that simply switching browsers is a big step forward for the college, as all users will sooner or later understand why using Firefox is intrinsically superior, apart from trivial features (glossware). However, I also feel that in terms of maximising the potential of the college-bought computers, users will probably experience a performance upgrade, even more if unnecessary software and processes are tuned out, more than continuing with XP. Still, this is only an opinion, not a guarantee. On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 12:05 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote: > I didn't get the feeling that Vickram is saying that it's your fault. > > It's not possible and not desirable to force everybody to switch to a > different browser. It is possible, however, to educate people about > having a choice. That's what FOSS activism is about and that's how i > understand Vickram's suggestion. Why is FOSS activism relevant in this > discussion, you ask? Not just because the Wikimedia movement is very > strongly related to FOSS, but because in this case FOSS technologies > provide a tangible benefit - the ability to use Indic fonts. And FOSS > relies on word-of-mouth promotion and activism rather than on > marketing professionals. > > Moving from IE to Firefox is much easier than moving between operating > systems or compilers. Millions of people wouldn't imagine moving from > Windows to Linux, but can easily move to Firefox. > > Both Firefox and IE can be installed side-by-side and the presence of > a different browser doesn't require any more maintenance. And if the > people don't like Firefox despite its better font support, they can > always move back to IE with zero effort. > > (In general, everything i say about Firefox applies to Google > Chrome/Chromium, too - it's open source, modern and > standards-compliant. However, for the particular issue of fonts > Firefox is better - from my experience Chrome has more bugs in this > field.) > > > 2011/12/14 Srikanth Ramakrishnan <parakara.gh...@gmail.com>: > > Vickram, your tone makes it look like everything is our fault. > > We cannot switch over to Firefox/Linux for one simple reason. > > Most students here are from a Rural background and won't be able to > > adjust to new stuff. They had a tough time adjusting from Windows 7 to > > XP when the rollback was done due to issues with Turbo C++ and > > Microsoft COBOL compiler. > > > > --~~~~ > > > > On 12/13/11, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote: > >> 2011/12/14 Vickram Crishna <vvcris...@radiophony.com>: > >>> Pardon my intrusion on this thread, but within reason*, if any college > or > >>> other educational institution chooses to be 'proprietary only' (never > mind > >>> antediluvian - IE6? really? or is that an XP issue?) FOSSers are > prepared > >>> to > >>> take it up 'officially' with them, reminding them of the nation's > >>> commitment > >>> to education without strings attached. This is fyi to listers, and I > >>> shan't > >>> mention it again, but please do consider notifying your friendly > >>> neighbourhood FOSSer with details of the person to contact > >>> (principal/director etc) for assistance and action. This in turn will > get > >>> reflected to a FOSS forum (fosscomm is one such) and will hopefully > result > >>> in notifying the institution concerned as well as the possibility of a > >>> local > >>> FOSS-based firm offering upgrade services. > >>> > >>> *ie FOSS as a movement is in continuous need of resources as well, but > >>> education is a major priority > >> > >> It is a very valid point. Installing Firefox or at least updating to > >> IE8 on Windows XP costs nothing and has very tangible and > >> easy-to-demonstrate benefits for language support. Wiki Community > >> members should BE BOLD and tell libraries, schools and colleges that > >> they should do it. > >> > >> While you are at it, make sure that auto-updates are enabled and > >> consider installing a version of Firefox with menus translated to the > >> local language (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html ; if > >> you can't find it your language, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n .) > >> > >> -- > >> Amir E. Aharoni > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > >> Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > >> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >> > > > > > > -- > > Regards, > > Srikanth Ramakrishnan. > > Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. > > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > -- Vickram Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
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