[ossig] Indian state goes for open source - Software - News - ZDNet Asia

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http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,61981452,00.htm

*Indian state goes for open source*
By Aaron Tan 
<mailto:aaron.tan at cnet.com&Subject=Feedback%20on%20%27Indian%20state%20goes%20for%20open%20source%27>, 
ZDNet Asia
Friday , January 12 2007 06:47 PM

*The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is making a move to adopt open source 
software, due to concerns over security and the high cost of Windows 
systems. *

According to C. Umashankar, managing director of Electronics Corporation 
of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) <http://www.elcot.com/>, government departments 
across the state will switch from Windows desktops to Novell's Suse 
Linux and OpenOffice from this year. Elcot is Tamil Nadu's state-owned 
IT supplier.

The first attraction of open source software is cost," Umashankar told 
ZDNet Asia in a telephone interview this week. "It's also very stable, 
and free of viruses," he said, noting that the move will slash the local 
government's IT cost by 15 to 25 percent.

Just recently, two Windows servers running in the state's IT network 
were infected with viruses, Umashankar revealed. He added that this 
situation was unlikely to happen in a Linux environment. "I had to send 
people down to fix the servers," he said.

According to Umashankar, 6,500 Linux systems have been sent to villages 
and another 6,100 are on their way. About 20,000 desktop computers 
running Suse Linux will also be procured for schools across the state.

Sandeep Menon, director of Linux business at Novell West Asia, said: 
"The Tamil Nadu government's announcement of adopting SUSE Linux is 
indeed a significant announcement for [the] Linux [community] as a whole.

"The government sector 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39418214,00.htm> is a 
key vertical with a lot of potential for growth," Menon added. "So we 
continue to work closely with the Tamil Nadu government in a 
comprehensive partnership model."

The Indian state is not new to open source software. The local 
government is already running Red Hat Linux on some backend servers, 
together with a slew of open source software including the JBoss 
application server 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,61968931,00.htm> and 
PostgreSQL database 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39212549,00.htm>.

In addition, Umashankar said an open source financial application has 
been procured for a new system that will support 10,000 cooperatives in 
Tamil Nadu.

He expects the move to Linux to be seamless, since the migration process 
will be undertaken by Elcot's Linux support center, with the help of 
Novell.

Over the next six months, more than 30,000 government officials will 
receive training on using Linux and the OpenOffice word processor. 
Meanwhile, Windows desktops will continue to be available for use, but 
Umashankar said officials will be encouraged to work on the Linux 
platform instead.

Sunil Abraham, manager of the International Open Source Network (IOSN) 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39380446,00.htm> at 
the United Nations, said that apart from cost and technical benefits, 
free and open source software can enable governments in developing 
countries such as India, to quickly respond to changing requirements.

Should a natural disaster like a tsunami 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,39211603,00.htm> 
occur, Abraham explained, governments can quickly assemble a team of 
open source engineers to piece together software tools that can be used 
to manage a disaster situation.

However, he noted that the current lack of expertise for open source 
software in India could impede the technology's adoption in the country.

"This problem exists all across India because more and more colleges and 
engineering institutions have started teaching proprietary technologies, 
rather than general computing concepts," he noted.

But this may change in future, Abraham said. Since last year, Anna 
University <http://www.annauniv.edu/> together with India's Center for 
Development of Advanced Computing in Chennai, have been offering two new 
modules in open source software. "This has been introduced to 300 
engineering [students] in Tamil Nadu," he said.

*Microsoft reacts*
Not surprisingly, Microsoft is not resting on its laurels. Umashankar 
said an official from the software giant's Indian office offered Elcot a 
discounted price for Windows XP, at 7,000 rupees (US$157) per copy. 
However, the deal fell through when Umashankar was only willing to shell 
out 300 rupees (US$6.73).

"[Microsoft] has been in touch with us but they didn't accept our 
offer," he said, but added that the discussion with Microsoft is still 
ongoing.

In fact, a Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet Asia that over 300 
e-governance applications in India are running on a Microsoft platform 
today. The software giant is also engaging with close to 14 state 
governments in the country.

"We have been actively engaged with the state government of Tamil Nadu 
in various capacities, and will continue to do so in the near future," 
the spokesperson added. "In fact, currently, 80 percent of state 
government applications are running on Microsoft platform, [such as] 
registration, land records, treasury, transport, to name a few."

Microsoft said it delivers a "clear value proposition" to its customers 
vis-à-vis Linux. "The unique selling proposition of the Microsoft 
platform and our range of offerings is our end-to-end stack of 
offerings, and our focus on integrated innovation," the spokesperson 
said. "Microsoft continues to focus on providing better value through 
lower total cost of ownership, higher reliability and better 
performance, better intellectual property indemnification than any other 
software provider, and security."


-- 

best wishes.
/nan phin

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

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