digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Linux Spreads Its Wings In India

businessweek.com — With 4,000 students and just 21 computers, the Cotton Hill Girls High School in the south Indian city of Trivandrum wouldn't appear to be at the vanguard of anything related to information technology. Yet the 71-year-old school is abandoning Microsoft Windows software in favor of its free, open-source rival, Linux.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • i440, on 10/12/2007, -25/+4So now, an amazing 21 more computers run Linux. News?
    • Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Maybe it's the fact that it's a school (And not a rich one by the sounds of it) is switching, in India, not known for it's technology (Which is on the rise, of course).
    • Applemacmad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Well, actually, It is one of 2,600 schools, serving 1.5 Million Students, so that a quite a few people using Linux as their first OS
    • sanman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13India's not communist, you moron.
      You must be thinking of Eye-rack again.
    • psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4umm . . actually india is not communist but Kerala (the state in which trivandrum is located) is ruled by a left wing communist alliance led by the CPI-M (communist party of india marxist)
    • cmilki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To clear it up. India has a few socialist "states" which are democratically elected. And when I mean few I mean 1 or 2. Socialism is not the same as Communism and India is widely regarded as a democracy.
    • motang, on 10/12/2007, -4/+321 computers what the ***** are you smocking?
  • bioskope, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5in a place where linux is something around 90% of the populace dont even have a clue about, yes that is something
  • iNcubi, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1I don't get it? This doesn't say anything? Of course they should use Linux, its free. Whats the deal? Its doesn't mean Linux is leading IT.

    It would be bigger new if the didn't change OS to Linux ($$$).
  • saturnring, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1though I am happy to hear about this and the other 2600 schools in the state of kerela, india, moving to linux, i cant help but woner what kind of downsides this effort could have. The positives could be many, but what about the negatives? also came across this poll on the same topic, http://www.tezaa.com/view/what_do_you_think_the_effect_of_moving_to_linux_based_computer_education_in_indian_schools_will_be
  • florizs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5qoute from the article:

    "And if students in the emerging tech powerhouse never get any experience with Windows, the damage a decade from now could be far greater."


    damn what kind of propaganda is this?
  • sksimhalu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5We got our Maths from India, the concept of zero, the numerals we use. The sin and cos functions
    check wikipedia

    Good to see it is paying back with contributions from the world over
  • yaosio, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1This is a great idea because it's obvious they don't want them to be able to use a worthwhile OS.
    • mickstephenson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4who are "they"? and why dont they want "them" to use it? the almighty powers that be? George W Bush? tricking the poor Indians into using a pointless OS? your comment seems to be casually racist?
      a worthwhile OS? have you tried linux? or just assume because u are part of the masses that you have got it right. the only thing linux cant outdo windows at it compatibility with products designed to be ran in windows, ie MSoffice and games, now thats quite an achievement for windows to be compatible with things that were designed to work on it isnt it?
      before you call an OS worthless you shoudl use it, and if you use it and fail at the first hurdle, perhaps you arent the techo wizard you thought you were
    • Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@yaosio: How many times have you used Linux? I'm thinking never. Next time you post in a Linux thread, just resist.
    • psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2classic microsoft and bush bashing on digg.

      dont u just love it when everything is just the way it always was ??
    • mickstephenson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I never bashed microsoft or bush, i bashed yaosio. i merely stated a fact, that it isnt a big achievement for microsoft when 3rd party developers make working software for windows, and questioned whether he thought bush was behind 'keeping india poor and stupid conspiracy' he seems to believe in
  • jamesbright, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0 I don't think that they are completely avoiding the windows! They are including Linux along with windows in the schools, I believe!
  • Eoxx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0the article itself doesn't give a lot of info ... it is not even interesting
    The only great thing we could hope about this is that a part of those 1.5 millions students will become open source programmer taht will contribute to the Linux project (and other too) ...
    • RickySan65, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Great more unreadable documentation and support you simply can't understand.
    • Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"Unreadable" documentation? Call me crazy, but man pages ARE written in plain English.....
  • cmilki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3People this is in Kerala, I submitted an article a long time ago saying all (high) schools in Kerala would switch to Linux.

    (However, I won't mark this duplicate)

    But here's a link if you want it.

    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Kerala_Indian_State_to_go_100_Linux
  • subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Quote from article: "The desktop is a different story: Just 3% of India's PCs use Linux. Still, that's about triple the level in the U.S."

    Am I the only one who actually RTFA? This can not possibly be true. 1%!!!! Every survey I have seen is higher then 4% to 5% or more. So if this article got something that basic and obvious so wrong why should I accept any of it's stats and conclusions?

    I personally believe that India IS the future of Linux (widespread desktop adoption). MS knows it which is why they are so aggressively counter-attacking. As the LinUser base grows the vendors and ISPs will follow the money and then all of our "incompatibility" issues will disappear.
  • onwardknave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm on a public PC, so I don't have adblocker installed, but did anyone notice the ironic huge Microsoft ad in the middle of the article?
  • Darkhacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I realize this is good news for open source and Linux and I'm not trying to be a flamer or anything, but does anyone think it just a bit overboard for it to be "news" everyday of the week?
    • Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Exposure and awareness is important. We may have seen it lots of times before, but there will people it is new to.
  • vixenk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"The company has been working on India-specific products at its development center in the southern city of Hyderabad. One of them is Windows XP Starter Edition, a scaled-down version that can only open three programs at once and doesn't support advanced networking."
    ""We need to demonstrate superior value to our customers," he says."

    Anyone else find this hilarious?
  • spacebar14, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2"Cotton Hill Girls High School"
    God I got turned on just reading that --- don't tell me I'm the only one!
  • SomethingWitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is truely inspirational. Another shining example of how wonderful open source is. MS must be freaking out. Someone in the open source community should go to there and help them even more.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.