[Debian-in-workers] Red Hat signs MoU with Kerala govt

[Mahesh T. Pai]

അനിവര്‍ അരവിന്ദ് said on Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 12:12:26PM -0700,:

 > > Red Hat signs MoU with Kerala govt
 > 
 > > Red Hat will train the technical staff of various government
 > > organizations on open source applications. Red Hat will also
 > > train school teachers in Kerala on Linux desktop skills under a
 > > "Train-the-Trainer" program.
 > 
 > This is shocking 4 me.

What is shocking here? 
 
 > So what will happen to Worlds largest Debian Installation as a
 > project (IT at school) in the world?

Not a  single school I have  come across admits to  having a GNU/Linux
installation. (50 and counting).

IT at SCHOOL does NOT  use debian; they are suing  a custom distribution,
and   the  government   of  Kerala   paid   a  hefty   sum  for   that
customisation. Debian based is NOT debian, same way that Ubuntu is not
debian. FWIW, the IT at SCHOOL cd is Ubuntu based, not debian based.
 
 > Is there any Technical merit for redhat over Debian, the community
 > project over a Social contract?

Since project does not use debian, the question is moot. 
 
 > Is it means IT at school platform will be changed to Redhat?

Please read  what you quoted above  again. The MoU is  much wider than
just  schools. There  is nobody  - absolutely  nobody to  support Free
software  deployment  in  the   government.   As  a  director  of  the
spacekerala.org  (or was  it somebody  from  river valley?   I do  not
remember - will post a link to the archive link today evening) pointed
out on the FSF-friends list,  he is single handed supporting above 100
servers  within the  government free  of  cost.  Such  support is  not
sustainable in the  long term, and will earn the  community a bad name
when the  person decides to discontinue  or is unable  to provide that
kind of  support. From  the news release,  RH is simply  stepping into
that vacuum by  providing means to develop human  resources within the
government. Please do not FUD that initiative.

 > What about the Teachers & students familiar & comfortable with
 > Debian?

How many are there in terms of percentage (and not absolute numbers)?

Here is a challenge:-

There are approximately aided and unaided 3000 schools in Kerala (that
is under the State government syllabus).

Can you (or anybody opposing or wanting to oppose this MoU) show me
300 schools (that is a mere 10%) EXCLUSIVELY on GNU/Linux? You will be
lucky if you can find 500 schools with dual boot installs; and say, 50
schools with exclusive GNU/Linux installs.

 > the  volunteers who trained teachers all over the state are fooled?

They were  already fooled when  they volunteered. Free  software means
that the  USER of the software  enjoys many freedoms;  not that either
the  software or  support is  free of  cost. If  the  people providing
support  for proprietary OSes  are paid,  there is  no reason  for the
members of the community to volunteer; and if members of the community
were paid, they are no longer volunteers.
 
All the machines  I use run Debian GNU/Linux. Every CD  is give out is
either Debian or debian-based. While I am no fan of RH, and it is more
than 6 years since I used Red Hat or its derivatives, I see absolutely
no reason to FUD Red Hat.

As  the  user  population   stands  right  now  (large  organisations,
businesses and governments) there is  simply no way of their accepting
service  from  voluntary  and  not  for  profit  organisations.   Even
commercial, for-profit,  businesses will  have to be  excluded because
the   kind   of   support   committment  required   is   quite   huge.
spacekerala.org  (of which  Vimal, Arun,  etc  are members)  is NOT  a
commercial organisation. Nor  is the FSF India (Arun  is a director of
FSF  and FSF  and Spacekerala  provide the  same kind  of  services) a
commercial organisation.

So,  please stay  away from  fudding this  MoU. They  are  providing a
service which no other commercial organisation is capable of providing
right now.  And if any  business is capable  of providing the  kind of
service required by the government, they are remaining silent. 

-- 
 Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.blogspot.com/
E-mail tips
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette