[ox-en] rms in india
- From: geert lovink <geert desk.nl>
- Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:34:20 +1100
(rms will also visit the www.sarai.net new media centre in delhi this week
/geert)
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/national/stories/52264.html?slink=nsl
Free software Guru -- Richard Stallman -- on India mission
Bangalore,
March 14, 2002
While the concept of using free software for back-end requirements is
catching on, the desktop is yet to be liberated from the hold of the
largest proprietary operating system (OS) corporations.
So, as the free software movement guru Richard M Stallman sets out to
spread the wings of the Free Software Foundation in India, helping
build applications for the desktop that will reach the common man a
daunting agenda lies ahead. Besides gearing up to popularise free
software, both at the back end and especially the desktop, empowering
developers to make applications ubiquitous, working with state
governments to promote free software use in e-governance and using it
as an effective tool to work towards bridging the digital divide is
the core of Stallman's India agenda. 'Apprenticeship by tinkering' is
clearly set to be the name of the game.
Richard Stallman is the man behind GNU/Linux (GNU developed by
Stallman and a Linux kernel developed by Linus Torwalds) open source
operating system, which is believed to have more than 17 million
installations worldwide. Interestingly, Stallman says, 'free' software
is not about the price (and says companies are free to charge a sum to
offer the operating system and services to users), but is all about
the freedom and openness of use. The Free Software Foundation itself
makes most of its revenues by selling copies of the software and
training manuals while some funds come in by way of donations. The
foundation is also looking at a business model where it will function
as the certifying agency and will certify compliance of free software
users with the licensing rules.
"Countries can avoid paying gigantic amounts of money towards
licensing of proprietary software. Specific to India, free software
can be used to support computer science education at all levels. This
also allows for anyone to use and learn," he said.
Interestingly, the free software movement with GNU/Linux has already
made inroads in India. To cite examples the Andhra Pradesh government
is already set to execute projects on the free OS, while the
well-known Simputer Trust has showcased this OS in its low-cost
computing appliance - Simputer and some of the new technology
start-ups like CDC Linux are already developing high-end clustering
and parallel supercomputing solutions on the GNU/Linux operating
system.
Source: The Financial Express
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