-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Surendra Singhi wrote:
> I have been here in Calcutta for almost a month now, and most people I > have met and > computer vendors hardly seem to be aware of Linux, and open source. Most > of > the people still use Internet Explorer and hardly know about > Firefox/Mozilla. Whereas in US I > remember a bus driver while asking me about firewalls, was boasting that > spywares cannot infect > his machine as he uses Firefox. > Also, awareness of other open source tools like Open Office, > Thunderbird, Gimp, is > pretty low. Most people aren't even aware that most of the softwares > which are installed > on their machines are pirated. Well proves one thing for sure - CDAC's releases of OpenSource software is not making much of a dent even though magazines like LinuxForYou carry them in issue after issue :) Then to top it all there is the icky issue of websites being non-compliant (iLUG-Delhi has the [in]famous *Hall of Shame*). In fact a large number of Linux users might tell that Opera on Linux works wonders (in fact it does a fat lot of good when it comes to Indic priting) while Firefox in spite of its large base of extensions fails and splutters. The very fact that in your UseCase the bus driver uses/has a computer/PC/desktop at home/work sort of points to a scenario which is not happening here very soon. One would see a lot of advertisements from Xenitis, Intel, HCL about 10K PCs but how many of these finally remain Linux desktops - that is a major cause for concern. Or, to take a much near to home example - try accessing www.wbut.net through Firefox and then do the same through Opera and IE (be prepared for surprises) and this is the site of a major University which has a well laid out mandate for using FLOSS software within its campus and on its machines. If people were to be aware of *piracy* in India, BSA would be overjoyed. Fact of the matter is that not many folks actually go ahead and use softwares like OO.o, Firefox, Thunderbird on MSFT machines which would make migration pathways a lot easier. [For Indranil - I do recall that a sizeable number of folks on this list are involved in the H/w business - are they still active ?] Earlier, it used to be that the IHVs used to talk about things not working in Linux and who will support it. But then again of late a large number (and it is a fairly large number) of IHVs who are getting their machines certified on Linux. This also means that in tender specifications they are in the race along side the IBMs and the DELLs of the world. So why is this not happening on the desktop ? Would be a puzzle since there are IHVs who actively and aggressively certify desktops on Linux. - -Sankarshan -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Red Hat - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFEAEIz+g4kmZ76nyERAtA7AKCCURZc+Y49Au7t8Ym114of4Pq9HwCgpH/g kh5EQVifEDyf5vVkzToW8kw= =buGH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
