Please sign this petition.

some observations: the '/' in GNU/Linux is printed as '' in the text. which may be corrected. another unfortunate part of the draft is the cost aspect of the initiative is given greater importance in the arguments, and the functional importance of the operating system while comparing GNU/linux with windows. We should take opportunities like this to tell the policy makers that freedom of the user is more important than the cost, while also telling that using free software is incidentally economical as well. I have signed the petition.

-- GN

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Narendra Sisodiya narendra@narendrasisodiya.com Date: Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 10:37 AM Subject: [fosscomm] Petition: Request to drop proprietary software from the free laptops to be distributed by the government to students of Tamil Nadu To: Indian FOSS Community Network list network@lists.fosscom.in

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alagunambi Welkin alagunambiwelkin@fsftn.org Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 9:50 AM Subject: [FSFTN] Petition: Request to drop proprietary software from the free laptops to be distributed by the government to students of Tamil Nadu To: mailinglist@fsftn.org

Dear Friends,

The Government of Tamil Nadu have decided to implement the scheme of free distribution of laptops to students studying Government and Government aided Schools and Colleges, and released a tender to procure 9,12,000 of laptops for the same.

By the tender reference: ELCOT/PID/ICB/LTC/PI/2011-12, government wants Proprietary Software to be installed.

The decision to include Proprietary OS in the laptops will have a huge impact both on cost and effectiveness of its use in education. There are 9,12,000 laptops being ordered for distribution. Assuming a basic cost of Rs1,000/- per system for the OS license, we find that it will cost the exchequer a whopping 91.2 crore. Incidentally the anti-virus software (the 'twin brother' of MS Windows) is offered as part of the package for just 1 year. This implies that the student will have to either pay to renew the license every year or use a pirated version. Given the weak financial situation of a vast majority of students, especially in rural parts of the State, it is most likely that they would would opt for latter, a highly unethical and unsafe practice. There is also a question mark as to how and where students are expected to renew licenses or anti-virus software. Besides, Microsoft provides support for its products only for a stipulated period; there is no comment on how students would get the assistance once the product is officially withdrawn from market.

It is well known now that GNU\Linux can perform all the functions any proprietary OS can do and much more. Most of these laptops will be used mainly to read/edit word documents, browse the internet, multimedia purposes, etc.. All these functions can be accomplished with ease by the available GNU\Linux distributions. Many more educational software are produced by the FOSS community in GNU\Linux platform than any proprietary companies. It is worth mentioning that there are even GNU\Linux distributions available for educational purposes which are packed with lot of software packages required for eduction.

So, please sign the petition to give free open source software for the younger generation of Tamil Nadu.

http://www.fsftn.org/tn-students-laptop-petition

-- Alagunambi Welkin Executive Committee Member Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu. Part of - Free Software Movement of India.

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-- ┌─────────────────────────┐ │    Narendra Sisodiya │    http://narendrasisodiya.com └─────────────────────────┘

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