Sandip Bhattacharya wrote:
Did you know that you can only see the official online version of the constitution of India in our national language - Hindi, if you use Internet Explorer? That is right. Take a look at the following link.
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html
I have been hunting down other GoI offenders and listing them at http://www.lug-delhi.org/HallOfShame/Websites
Now dont go ahead and moan about difficulties of showing Indian languages on the web.The PTI hindi website (http://www.ptinews.com/bhasha/ptisite.nsf) shows that a standard based alternative already exists.
We need more help from every body concerned to list the GoI and private financial institution offenders who discriminate against users of alternative and Free Operating systems from accessing information from our very own government!
Basically, NIC < http://home.nic.in/ > has been involved with computerisation in our country, for a long time, since 1950's. Please visit http://home.nic.in/aboutus/history.htm The GOI sites, and many state gov sites are maintained by NIC. It is almost pointless to nitpick GOI sites when NIC has been using proprietary software for a long time when it was the only viable option available. Please visit http://home.nic.in/opa/opa.htm and go through the http://home.nic.in/opa/topics.htm Looks like many of the gov offices are run with proprietary software. But all that would change, and the most visible indication of that change is http://osf.nic.in/
No doubt, there could be no discrimination against free software users. But, if we take into consideration the long history of using non-free software when that was the only workable option available, it is harsh to have a "Hall of Shame" and expect changes over night. The better way to fame is to send plain and simple suggestions pointing out what exactly needs to be done. http://osf.nic.in specifically asks for suggestions. Have you thought of inviting the admin of osf.nic.in to your lug meets? Let us please devise practical ways to assist them in bringing about changes quickly.
After all what is the point of evangelising Linux/BSD or whatever as an alternative to newbies if they see that every other web site in India openly discriminate against them?
It may not be fair to accuse NIC of wanton discrimination, at this stage, when evengelising itself is not yet on a scale and size that is really befitting the growth and maturity of free software. Increasing awareness about free software is necessary along with other changes simultaneously. Though the advantages in using free software is fairly obvious, and it is difficult to come to terms with having to "evangelise" free software, if is unfortunately needed, and we need to keep doing it until all software is free software.
Regards, Ramanraj.