On Sunday 01 March 2009 12:37:00 Rahul Sundaram wrote: > >>> Hi ! > >> > >> I am curious to know if NCRFOSS uses windows in their work environment > >> or it is only this employees preference ? > > > > some use windows - although usually with openoffice and thunderbird. > > There is no fatwa in this regard. > > Is there a particular reason for this Windows dependency?
some of the nrc-foss people wear several hats and need to use windows for other things they are working on. AU-KBC centre which also runs NRC-FOSS is a research centre primarily focussed on proprietary software, patents, royalties etc. They also do some foss, the wireless department works with both atheros and OLPC and the NLP department releases some of it's work as open source and uses a lot of foss tools, as does the bioninformatics department. Incidently there is a significant number of people who develop FOSS but work on windows (or Mac). It is not the tools that are important, what is important is that the code is free - a good example is the potlatch editor for Openstreetmap, written in flash and developed on doze. Compare that to the 'foss' software developed by the Kerala government and endorsed by the fsf - uses linux and lamp stack, but the code is proprietary. What use is it? As far as AU-KBC is concerned all the servers are linux - a lot of the desktops are also linux, but the majority of them are windows. AFAIK it is left to the individual to choose his/her OS. There are even some MSDOS machines which control some of the older equipment. -- regards kg http://lawgon.livejournal.com _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email [email protected] with "unsubscribe <password> <address>" in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
