News: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HC/2011/09/15/ArticleHtmls/ht-SPECIAL-No-BOSS-15092011001020.shtml?Mode=1
STRANGE SWITCH Punjab reverses , decision to use BOSS, a free, open l source software promoted by Centre, l in favour of an expensive Microsoft one ( ) Various features of BOSS are on par with Microsoft Windows. Comfort level of students, teachers is not impacted in significant manner J S B H AT I A executive director, C-DAC The Punjab government is set to buy Microsoft's multi-crore rupee software after quietly reversing its September 2008 decision of using a software the central government installed for free in around 46,000 computers of 4,965 government schools in the state as part of the computer education programme. The decision in favour of the software giant came after the then director general school education (DGSE) Krishan Kumar was transferred and replaced by another IAS officer, Baldeo Purushartha, IAS, in February, official documents accessed by HT reveal. “We have just replaced one decision by another after having a re-look at the previous decision,“ Purushartha said. The Punjab government launched the ICT or information and communication technology programme for students of Class 6 to Class 12 in 200405. Punjab's ICT Education Society is running the project for which computer labs with necessary hardware, software and broadband connectivity have been established in all upper primary schools. The central government is promoting Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS), tested and certified by Linux foundation, US, for computer education in schools since BOSS is financially feasible to implement. Haryana is using BOSS in more than 2,600 schools (installed on about 52,000 machines) successfully. Gujarat has opted for the central government software in 15,000 schools and some 1.5 lakh computers. Other states such as Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are “We have opted for BOSS as the Microsoft software was not economical. The software of BOSS and Microsoft are on a par,“ said Vijendera Kumar, DGSE, Haryana. “BOSS is more than adequate and we are totally satisfied with it.“ According to Parveen Sangwan, assistant director of Haryana IT education, the total cost involved in implementing the Microsoft software in 2,600 schools was estimated to be about Rs 45 crore for five years. “We use BOSS in our head office too,“ he said. In an official note, the then Punjab DGSE Kumar had said that the minimum cost of renewing Microsoft's software licence -in 16,578 computers at the rate of Rs 1,375 per computer -for five years was Rs 2.3 crore. After evaluating Microsoft and BOSS in September 2008, the Punjab government gave its nod to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to deploy and install BOSS and other related software in all government upper primary schools in state. The state government held that this decision was taken “considering that BOSS Linux would prove informative and beneficial to the students“. C-DAC was also directed to design computer books in Punjabi by December 2009. The state government told C-DAC that students' training on BOSS would begin from 2011. C-DAC met all the deadlines by April 2, 2011, including training 6,600 computer teachers. The central government spent Rs 1 crore on this work, the CDAC said. But on August 8, 2011, the Punjab DGSE told C-DAC that it had been decided in a June 6 meeting “that the department of school education will go with the implementation of Microsoft Operating System...for imparting computer education to the children studying in government schools“. “The decision came as a real shock to us. The (education) department has changed the operating system without taking C-DAC's opinion,“ JS Bhatia, executive director of C-DAC, wrote to the Punjab government. “After deploying BOSS Linux in 4,695 government schools, designing books in Punjabi... training all 6,600 computer teachers, the department has again shifted to Microsoft Operating System despite having lots of conversations/progress reports/completion reports on the said issue,“ the letter said. soundbytes What's the use of training students in a software not used in the market? Students trained on BOSS cannot work on the Microsoft software BALDEO PURUSHARTHA Punjab DGSE The argument that a person trained on BOSS won't be able to deal with Microsoft is fallacious VIJENDERA KUMAR Haryana DGSE BOSS meets all basic and important requirements as far as student training is concerned. It has evolved a lot. Its functions are similar to that of the Microsoft's software A SENIOR IT expert in the region _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
