FOSS Tools for daily use (Was Re: [Ilugc] fossconf'09 talk slide)
- From: kapil@xxxxxxxxxxx (Kapil Hari Paranjape)
- Date: Sun Mar 1 21:54:38 2009
Hello,
On reading the mails from KG and VN:
Some kinds of e-legal work:
On Sun, 01 Mar 2009, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
some of the nrc-foss people wear several hats and need to use windows for
other things they are working on. AU-KBC centre which also runs NRC-FOSS is a
research centre primarily focussed on proprietary software, patents,
royalties
etc.
and some e-governance work:
Compare that to the 'foss' software
developed by the Kerala government and endorsed by the fsf - uses linux and
lamp stack, but the code is proprietary. What use is it?
and some e-commerce work:
On Sun, 01 Mar 2009, varadarajan narayanan wrote:
But when it come to work , I still need a windows machine for some reason
or other. Webex was not supported properly till few months ago in Linux till
Cisco took over and did something about it. We are dependent on windows
environment for something or other. In India digital certificate and company
formation etc are still depending on windows and IE !
currently depends on the use of proprietary software (usually Windows)
in the Indian environment.
As VN has said we should be aware that technical solutions will
not be enough. What if the majority of students demand training in
proprietary platforms? What if the majority of people who submit tax
returns do them using windows? In such cases, technical solutions
alone will not carry the day.
However, it would be nice if NRC-FOSS created a "FOSS usability bug
list" which detailed each of these problems (i.e. unavailibility of
FOSS solutions) in the area of e-legal, e-gov and e-commerce.
Then people who have knowledge of FOSS solutions can try to write the
necessary configuration and documentation to make these solutions
available as alternatives to the proprietary ones that are currently
in vogue. Those who are insiders in law/gov/business can make the
reuirements more specific so that solutions can be found.
There will need to be give and take from both sides in order to work
out good solutions.
Perhaps such a list is already in place. In that case it would be
nice if the URL is posted.
Regards,
Kapil.
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