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Parthan wrote:
Considering the academic community, consisting of students and teachers,
who are atleast computer literates to some extent, if not Open Source
literates. And, the fact is also that they have been using proprietary
software for a long time. Our aim should be to make them FOSS aware and
with a little of motivation and effort we can achieve this. This is
what, ilugc has been doing through LDDs and seminars held in various
colleges/schools and plan to carry the same further in the future.
Considering the schools, who may not be as wealthy as colleges, is it a
viable option for them to buy RHEL ? Do they really need things like
RHEL, when they are just beginning to get into OSS. I do not commit to
Prash's argument that 'along the way, problems might turn them off/drop
them off". We, in ilugc, not only strive to create linux/OSS awareness
but also ready to help academic people become OSS literates. We showed
Considering the common men, who are need of support of computers but
can't afford for costly solutions like RHEL support. These people aren't
really computer savvy but the seek the help of computers to make their
work simple. For these people, 'Free' as in 'Free beer' does matter a
lot. In this way, the Open Source can help them a lot. It is also true
that, the requirements of these people can be solved with 'free as in
free beer' softwares available in open source world today. If not, a
solution can be developed with an economically viable price tag for them
in OSS.
People don't understand when you speak them the benefits of OSS, but
surely when you show them. Thats what we do, by holding LDDs. Indeed,