MS Marketing Medusa is here, yet again!
In September 2011, sflc.in came across a news item reporting a decision by the Government of Punjab to switch to Microsoft Windows instead of BOSS Linux . I had barely rejoiced properly the news which had appeared earlier in the year on February, 2011, about the use of BOSS in the ICT program for students et Voila! Here was a 180 degrees turn in the policy within a span of seven months.The newspaper item insinuated the transfer of IAS officers in charge of the Department of Education as the triggering point in the turn of events in this staged dramedy. Through a series of applications filed under the Right to information Act, sflc.in obtained the minutes of the meeting in which the decision to switch over was effected. Here, I provide a brief of the information received, please pardon the intended puns and suggest a future course of action. sflc.in is looking into the legal aspects of challenging procurement policies and would love to have a pro-bono lawyer in the State of Punjab. The minutes bring to light an "honest" request by Microsoft's directorial brigade with heads of education, marketing and public sector for a meeting with the Principal Secretary of Education, Punjab, post the announcement of their decision to use Edu BOSS in the Edusat Computer labs and Computer labs for providing computer education and training . And here our naivete had made us believe that all options must have already been considered and weighed before the decision to use BOSS was made in February by the then Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab regarding the purchase of Operating Systems. A director from CDAC was also present in the meeting who did not wish to make any presentation as they had already submitted the necessary documents and nothing additional was required. Hopefully, the contributions were laconic. The director's objections are recorded in the minutes wherein he had objected to the assertion that /"the states of U.P., Tamil Nadu, Assam had shifted back to Microsoft after using "Open Source". /"Facts" in support of these bald statements were provided within two months in another meeting. Further, since only recent tenders and contracts were to be awarded to Microsoft, it did not seem to merit any further objections. To quote this piece of poetry /" There was deliberation on the trend of reverting back to MS platform, to which CDAC representatives have told that their system is very new as compared to Microsoft to which Microsoft mentioned that the trend was on OSS/Linux which has been prevalent for the last 10 years and still there are switchovers (sic) happening now. MS representatives informed that prices offered for the purpose of school education are highly discounted as compared to prices available commercially" ./ Did I hear anyone gasp and say tobacco companies "get them young and hooked "? In fact, the data provided and recorded with respect to the switchovers (sic) in various states talks about tender documents wherein specific tenders demanding Microsoft's various products are made but no evidence of the so called switchover (sic) was to be seen anywhere. CDAC made a submission highlighting Government of Rajasthan's use of Debian along with Microsoft (sic). Although, a brief statement about each state concludes with a qualifier that / "However, [INSERT STATE NAME] never opted for EBOSS"/ the Committee headed by the Principal Secretary, School Education, Punjab reaches the following conclusion / " The above documents pertains to demand of Microsoft Windows in the recent tenders and support the contention that following states have shifted back to Microsoft from open source which was earlier dealing with open source and now they have demanded Microsoft" / The meeting also recorded Tamil Nadu ELCOT's decision about which we recently saw a report at http://tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws101011MICROSOFT.asp# Disclaimer: Neither the logical or analytical reasoning nor the grammar or punctuation is mine. Amongst the other factors considered were the following claims: / "Microsoft products are built on principles of interoperability and open standards and hence offer greater compatibility and tighter integration amongst offerings" / CDAC's objections over this were "considered". / "Students who will even go abroad where they will have to work on Microsoft operating system"(sic)"/ / "Letting students work in a Windows environment will save the students from transition problem"/ /"As a result it was decided that EBOSS may be installed in the Edusat labs of 2 districts as a pilot project and Microsoft operating system in the remaining 18 districts./" A Copy of these minutes with answers to the questions raised is provided herewith. -- Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary, Esq. Director-International Practice Software Freedom Law Center 1995 Broadway Floor 17 New York, NY-10023 (tel) 212-461-1912 (fax) 212-580-0898 www.softwarefreedom.org Executive Director Software Freedom Law Center K-9, Second Floor Jangpura Extn. New Delhi-110014 (tel) +91-11-43587126 (fax) +91-11-24323530 www.softwarefreedom.in
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