The main reason for the growth of free s/w in india may be the large amount of advertisement and support for proprietery s/ given by local Computer centers and educational institutions. Away from big cities, (I don't know what are the current circumstances outside kerala), no computer institute tries to teach free s/w. Instead they give large amount of advertisement for Office,Vb, VC, ASP, Oracle etc. The reason is that the institutes wants profit and they think that they can get a high profit only through teaching MS products. They make general public feel that A computer means windows (What a funny idea isn't it?) Even i have some experience with some employees in some computerised environment unknowing about free s/w at all. There is the deficiency of good faculties as well. Even those people running Computer centeres (We can call them principals or centre heads of an eucational institution) unawre of the fact that there are free s/w available instead of what s/w they use. Also anybody has a comment about teaching programming in high school classes before the student understands what is a computer, what is word processing, what is a spread sheet? what is internet etc.. Our educational policy is to first teach programming and may of our schools are without proper facilities.. The student who sees the computer for the first time in his life starts learning programming in c++ and he is really confused (that was the case with me when i started programming some years back).. So i think its appropriate to teach some fundamentals and some lab sessions at least for 2-3 months.. Any opinion about it.. then plz write to me thank U
"sooraj" == soorajdathan <sooraj> writes:
sooraj> The main reason for the growth of free s/w in india may be sooraj> the large amount of advertisement and support for sooraj> proprietery s/ given by local Computer centers and sooraj> educational institutions. Away from big cities, (I don't sooraj> know what are the current circumstances outside kerala), sooraj> no computer institute tries to teach free s/w. Instead sooraj> they give large amount of advertisement for Office,Vb, VC, sooraj> ASP, Oracle etc. The reason is that the institutes wants sooraj> profit and they think that they can get a high profit only sooraj> through teaching MS products. sooraj> [snip]
They don't think: they know that they can make better profits by teaching Windows.
My criterion for judging how popular a software is through market demand. And market demand is easy to gauge through the employment ads.
In my 10 years or whatever of scanning ads, I think I must have seen exactly 3 that mentioned Linux and none that mentioned MySQL, PostgreSQL, gcc, Emacs or Apache. Admittedly I haven't been doing it too diligently, but 99.99% of the market appears to be for people familiar with various proprietary softwares. Who the H*ll is going to promote Linux courses then?
Regards,
-- Raju
In my 10 years or whatever of scanning ads, I think I must have seen exactly 3 that mentioned Linux and none that mentioned MySQL, PostgreSQL, gcc, Emacs or Apache. Admittedly I haven't been doing it
Well, ads always are not going to be the true indicator of market demand, especially those appearing in the print media.
There are specific sites available on the net that go on to show the market share of software tools. There are market analysts doing the job. You should check out for news from Gartner, IDC etc. For OS comparisons, you could check out www.netcraft.com.
Things aren't exactly the way you think it to be.
Raju
"CKR" == CK Raju ckraju@zyberway.com writes:
>> In my 10 years or whatever of scanning ads, I think I must have >> seen exactly 3 that mentioned Linux and none that mentioned >> MySQL, PostgreSQL, gcc, Emacs or Apache. Admittedly I haven't >> been doing it
CKR> Well, ads always are not going to be the true indicator of CKR> market demand, especially those appearing in the print media.
CKR> There are specific sites available on the net that go on to CKR> show the market share of software tools. There are market CKR> analysts doing the job. You should check out for news from CKR> Gartner, IDC etc. For OS comparisons, you could check out CKR> www.netcraft.com.
CKR> Things aren't exactly the way you think it to be.
I'd still stand by what I said in the context of teaching shops and the demand for courses on Linux, Apache, free software, etc. in India. Maybe there's a niche market for someone offering courses in free software packages, but it's definitely not something that I expect the NIIT's and IIIT's and Aptech's of the world to switch to in the near future. Netcraft and Gartner have nothing to do with it.
Does anyone have figures on how many people sign up for NIIT's RHCE course as opposed to their MCSE course, for example? I'd be surprised if the ratio was greater than 1:100.
Regards,
-- Also Raju
Raju Mathur said:
"CKR" == CK Raju ckraju@zyberway.com writes:
In my 10 years or whatever of scanning ads, I think I must have seen exactly 3 that mentioned Linux and none that mentioned MySQL, PostgreSQL, gcc, Emacs or Apache. Admittedly I haven't been doing it
CKR> Well, ads always are not going to be the true indicator of CKR> market demand, especially those appearing in the print media.
CKR> There are specific sites available on the net that go on to CKR> show the market share of software tools. There are market CKR> analysts doing the job. You should check out for news from CKR> Gartner, IDC etc. For OS comparisons, you could check out CKR> www.netcraft.com.
CKR> Things aren't exactly the way you think it to be.
I'd still stand by what I said in the context of teaching shops and the demand for courses on Linux, Apache, free software, etc. in India. Maybe there's a niche market for someone offering courses in free software packages, but it's definitely not something that I expect the NIIT's and IIIT's and Aptech's of the world to switch to in the near future. Netcraft and Gartner have nothing to do with it.
Does anyone have figures on how many people sign up for NIIT's RHCE course as opposed to their MCSE course, for example? I'd be surprised if the ratio was greater than 1:100.
i agree with raju its not a viable proposition in INDIA at all , until and unless somebody is funding the training programme.Our personal experience has been the same i donna about others we have to spend more time for less and sometime none which does not make a business sense at all.We fell until and unless the demand which is the fuel for this kind of a micro economy the education market for free software will not take off. GNU/Linux and other free software has been like child whom every one has sympathies and loves but nobody is ready to take the burden or risk of giving a helping hand in the real world so that an industry is created around it and everyone will live happily here after..... cheers S.Goswami
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Raju Mathur posts :
Netcraft and Gartner have nothing to do with it.
I tend to agree with Raju here, Netcraft & Gartner have nothing to do.
The issue is that all of us personally should ask ourselves, `Have we done something to promote Free Software ?' Have we gone out to schools and engg. colleges to advocate the angle of the GNU Project ? How many guys have we educated and brought in to the GNU fold by articulating the ethical angle ? We should go out of our way to help a guy who is in real need and who is articulating his doubts clearly.
Best.......
-
CK Raju -
Raghavendra Bhat -
Raju Mathur -
Satyakam Goswami -
sooraj