Hai,
Here is the news appeared in New Indian Express on 5th Dec 2002
Kannur varsity students help reduce hardware cost
KOCHI: Even as talks between the State Government and Microsoft are deadlocked
over the issue of using legal software, the hardware optimisation for schools
in Kannur parliamentary constituency is being implemented on a free software
platform - GNU/Linux.
The IT@School programme will be taught in Kannur schools utilising this
facility.
The usage of Etherboot on GNU/Linux has helped in reducing the hardware cost
of the project to less than 66 percent and will help schools to have more
computers. All this was possible because of the technical support rendered by
a bunch of students of Kannur varsity's MSc Computer Science course and the
Social Entrepreneurship Promotion Society on Information Technology (SEPSIT),
the charitable society they floated recently for promoting use of software
under General Public Licence (GPL).
The money for the project comes from the MP's fund and the savings can be used
to buy more than 50 additional computers, says Manoj T R, a third semester
student of the MSc Computer Science course and director of SEPSIT.
The organisation, which has the backing of the faculties of the Kannur
University MSc Computer Science, aims at enhancing social entrepreneurship
among IT professionals and nurturing technology education geared to creation
of public intellectual property in IT. The society, which has the active
participation of nearly 70 software professionals, will operate throughout
the State from its office in Dinesh Software Park.
SEPSIT had to work overtime to convince the officials of the National
Informatics Centre which is the nodal agency for approving computerisation
projects under the MP's fund. The order for 140 computers worth Rs 26 lakh
was given to Keltron Controls, Aroor, only after it was convinced of the
technology utilising Etherboot on GNU/Linux platform. Keltron Controls is
supplying 43 server configurated PCs and 97 nodes for the project.
Each school will have a server and four or five diskless nodes. The drastic
cost reduction is possible because devices like hard disks, floppy drives, CD
drives and UPS can be cut down in the client server mode. There is a saving
of Rs 9000 per school and the money can be used for purchasing more
computers. Around 185 computers in Linux platform can be purchased using the
Rs 45 lakh pledged by Kannur MP A P Abdullakkutty against the 130 that can be
bought while using proprietary software.
Keltron Controls has also bagged the order for computerisation of schools in
Alappuzha district from V M Sudheeran MP's fund. The order for over 700
computers (5 PCs for one school) using proprietary software is pegged at Rs 2
crore.
SEPSIT has now formulated a strategy to train the teachers of these schools in
Linux Administration, usage of free software tools like Open Office (and
other free office tools), Xine (and other multi-media applications), and
BASIC programming on GNU/Linux platform. SEPSIT also has the computerisation
project of Kannur University using free software tools in hand.