On Monday 08 March 2010 10:21:28 Vivek Khurana wrote: > On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Linux Lingam <[email protected]> wrote: > > in fact, foss hasn't yet won the expected and widespread adoption > > i had hoped in the no-brainer category from the previous decade: > > openoffice.org vs msoffice. Plus, even after President Abdul > > Kalam's > > I guess we miss the bus everytime when it comes to adoption of > FOSS. Firstly, whatever hope/estimations/imaginations one has for > FOSS adoption will always be shattered. Reason, FOSS adoption like > FOSS development happens in real time not in internet time. > Expecting a revolution is futile, instead FOSS adoption is fueled > by rebels. The only way to increase FOSS adoption is to improve the > FOSS software.
It isnt FOSS software or development or lack of funds that is the real problem. It is procurement policy, which is totally loaded against FLOSS. On the rare occasion when the procurement tech docs actually take the trouble of specifying FLOSS, the commercial terms all but bar floss companies. Clauses specifying 10 times the turnover of the proposed project, or having deployed a project of the same value and size. Lack of trained manpower /infrastructure is more of a "drummed up" problem tied in to tendering. Tenders require the infrastructure before awarding a contract. For eg. the Maharashtra govt. ICT policy (as implied in their MOU) wants trainers at the taluka level, but makes no provision for retraining existing manpower, hanging around from other projects. The ostensible reason being that the earlier project failed to deliver. The closed companies are entrenched because they have a head start of 10 to 25 years. Many large companies had begun their operations selling calculators made by DCM and Superior electronics. Consequently a FLOSS company will have to cook it's books and indulge in several other unsavoury practices to commercially qualify for most of the government tenders. So the deployment of FLOSS will happen only at a rate governed by all sorts of extraneous factors. -- Rgds JTD _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
