What is Digg?126 Comments
- lokeshk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+39Kerala's decision to move to Linux is a good sign for Linux. Open nature of Linux kernel should also help Indian students to learn kernel internals easier and modify it to suit to their own needs, which is not possible with Windows.
- fatas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+36Kerala is a socialist state so they have a very high literacy rate unlike the rest of India.
- golgo13, on 10/12/2007, -11/+41I'm Indian, I served in a Special Operation Group while enlisted in the United States Army. I've been to pretty much every hot spot, for the U.S., there is.
What have you ever done? I'm guessing the only thing you've ever done, besides post on digg, is make *****, ignorant remarks about people you don't know. - burke, on 10/12/2007, -4/+29"Seeing as how like 95% of people use it"
Apparently not in Kerala. - fugazi, on 10/12/2007, -16/+40Finally they can answer my linux questions on the support line.
- krum, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2699.9% literacy? Really? According to the Indian Census, it's more like 90%.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I'm been around more stinky fellow Americans than I have Indians.
- ztpruit, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23@FoolFromHell
I have lived in the US for over 21 years (that would be my whole life) and while our literary rate is one of the best in the world and most people can speak, read, and write American English, the majority cannot do it properly. Now feel free to tear apart my comment. - burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18What an appropriate and on-topic comment. You win the internet.
- thepxc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15@IceMan
India is the _far_ East. - foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20yes. it is more like 90%.....
but I have lived in India for 9 years..... never met anyone who cant read and write..... - supermansuper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Maybe you dont know your english(american, rather) that well. And yeah, btw, it is not 'meat' idiot, it is 'meet'. And this guy comments about someone else's bad english. What a moron.
- amire80, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Knowing English is not literacy.
English is not inherently more important than any oter language. It's important for technology and communication, but literacy is first and foremost about person's mothertongue.
And don't you worry about Indians studying English - they are not so bad at it (funny accent aside).
Frow what i heard, Kerala has a democratically elected communist government - probably the only such place in the world. Apparently some good things come from it... - jordanrobbins, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14White people smell funky to Asians!
its all about what you eat.
They say we smell like dairy products. - foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17Kerala is an awesome vacation spot! been there some 4 times for vacation. all desis... proclaim your presence!
- mancat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Well for what it's worth, most of the people in Alabama who can't read or write, still refer to the United States as "The Confederate States."
- Escamillo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+20"For monopolising Windows"
The very fact that a "state" can "go 100% Linux" proves that there is no Windows monopoly. - twtmc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I'm glad to see advancement of such open source technology. The internet is a good community, and introducing more people into only further advances the community. Unfortunately with windows, there really isn't much a community because it is closed source. Mac has somewhat of a community, but all in all, it just sort of blends with the linux community again. I would like to see linux being pushed in our school systems here in north america a bit more. Maybe then people would realize how their software works a bit better and might be able to fix it if it breaks.
- lordofhaha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12oh about 0.031838619 billion or so 5 years ago...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala) - archiesteel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12You can play semantics and say that Windows is not a monopoly because it doesn't have a 100% market share, but the fact of the matter is that you don't need *total* control of a market to be considered a monopoly from a legal standpoint.
MS can use its huge market presence to, say, pressure OEMs into not loading other OSes by default; that's an example of how, legally, it could be said to abuse its monopoly status. - Agret, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11If you know how to use Linux you'll pick Windows up really quickly....and hate it :)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15We all know operating Windows is essential knowledge, not like math or chemistry.
If a college or university is teaching Windows specific material, they will also be handing out expensive toilet-paper at the graduation ceremony. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I've never met a fellow American who couldn't read or write, either. That doesn't mean the US has 99.9% literacy, however.
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10plus, if they're only teaching linux in high schools, what do you imagine universities will be teaching?
- decay, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14OK you found me.
- amarsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13"I've never met a fellow American who couldn't read or write, either."
So you have never been to Alabama then?! - AnimalMachine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10It's the phone. The phone amps the accent.
- kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+15How come every Indian(or person from that region) I meat in real life I can understand, I can understand them in movies. But for some reason when something stops working and I call tech support I DON'T HAVE A ***** CLUE WHAT THEY ARE SAYING!
- daemonx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Im from kerala, and u can imagine how happy i was to see my state's name on the front page of digg. Though i applaud on the decision to introduce linux there are some infrastructure problems in kerala, mainly being power shortages. The SEA-ME-WE cable terminates in Cochin, which is set to be the next technopolis, but still the govt is tight on providing bandwidth to the masses. Hope it gets resolved soon..
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1112,500 highschools "in the state"?!
Holy *****, how many billions of people live there?! - jerinjoy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9With a population of 30 million, the state is India's most progressed society in terms of education, literacy and health. The Marxist government in Kerala despite being considered detrimental to a free market economy did wonders for the state in the sixties and seventies. They helped to abolish the wretched caste system, put everyone in school and create a base for the excellent healthcare system. They're back in power now and they did scuttle a project to setup a major IT software center in the state. But they banned Coke and Pepsi from operating in the state - these companies were robbing the state of its abundant water resources and releasing pollutants into the rivers. And now with promoting Linux, I think they're on the right track.
- masteryoda, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I had been to Kerala once and they actually prefer you speak Malayalam and if they know Hindi they will ignore if you ask anything in Hindi.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Interesting, a huge push for the Linux community indeed.
- caboosemoose, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6At 1000 children per school that makes about 125,000 school age children. The entire population of India is now well over 1,000,000,000. I think you'll easily see that 12,500 schools in the state is eminently possible from even such rough estimates.
- martalli, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"no offense, I love Middle Easterners!"
Offense taken - India is South Asia, not the Middle East. Is the US Latin America? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Um. No. At 1,000 children per highschool, that makes about 12,500,000 high school aged children -- not 125,000.
Also, 1,000 children per school is really small. Seems like a lot of likely administrative redundancy involved. - Kelmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@i440
China and other low-cost Far East countries seems a fair bet. The economics of the demand for cheap labour is already pushing up the prices in India such that western companies are now looking to other countries that have yet be plumbed but where the education is generally good. For example, my organisation (a very big one in the US) now employs outsourcing centres in China and Mexico as well as India. - cmilki, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11It was by the supreme court, but the Kerala High Court and govt. refuse to budge.
I guess this is similar to the ban on Alcohol in Andhra Pradesh (by NTRs TDP) - riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4There's something about Bush in there.. read it carefully.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ martalli
"Is the US Latin America"
It is *NOW*. :) - fatas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You have to be a ***** idiot to having experience in using Linux and then being clueless when using Windows.
- martalli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Game designers' support of Linux will never matter as much as support of the endless varieties of business software which would need to be switched to Linux.
Our office uses Linux on several computers. There are three apps we have that must use Windows: A radiology visualization front-end (requires activex and windows), transcription upload/download program written in VB (crashamatic), and Quickbooks. There are probably easy Linux solutions for all three, but since they tie into business partners we have little control over (the local hospital, an *Indian* transcription company, and our accountants), then we are better off with these programs.
Yeah, yeah, we could try crossover office, etc. But the price of these are close to the cost of windows. So far, my best windows emulator is still an actual copy of windows. However, if I could talk the radiology company into writing a Linux front end, if Quickbooks came out for Linux, if the transcription company would rewrite their program in wxpython, then all of this would improve. It's just a matter of reaching a tipping point.
The installed base of Linux exceeds macs (very arguable point, I'm sure), but Linux doesn't have the heavy advertising of macs, so they still seem to be in a distant third for desktop apps in the business realm. I think the efforts of Novell and IBM are changing this landscape...as long as they aren't actually in a suicidal charge... - deepusj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Me too and I am from Kerala
- MrFrankly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It seems Kerala wants a good Microsoft volume license offer. The best way to do that is by saying you'll switch all your computers to Linux.
I'm curious how many of those announced Linux switches by cities/states/countries really happened? In the end most of them seem to go for Windows because they're getting a good deal from Microsoft. - martalli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We will have to see if the bureaucrats will give up their precious copies of MS Word. Once that's happened, things will probably progress nicely. I would also harbor some suspicion that this is just going to be talk and never any actual action...they'll come up with a five year plan and buy Vista while they're still thinking about installing Vista...
- theMangledOne, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It's very refreshing to hear developing countries adopting Linux better than developed countries (on a wide government-based, state/nation-wide basis).
(And yes, I heard of the US' DoD's call for better adoption of open-source. Which is good.)
I think it's high time for better standards and open source, don't you think? Then everybody is playing/fighting on equal playing field, and that's what I called "true meritocracy." - glycolized, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why is this newsworthy?
Maybe because the implications of 12,500 high schools teaching linux is a big deal. Hell, from what I gather here, there is about 25,000 high schools in the whole US.
http://www.publicpurpose.com/gf-edschd.htm
That surely will make a difference in 10 years, especially if any other Indian states follow suit. A lot of the comments here are assuming that the US is the center of the universe in regards to technology, industry, and economics. That may not always be the case in the future, so comments like "95% of the world...", and "to get into college you'll need...", are pretty short-sighted.
Seriously, do you think that a kid that has learned his computer literacy on linux machines is going to be educationally crippled when they get to college and they are typing freshman english papers on Word? - DPyro, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8reporting in
- martalli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why should the government pay some set amount for every single computer simply to have an operating system, when an OS (and almost all necessary software) can be had for free.
Most people are simply learning to use the word processor, cruising the Internet for information. For programming, Linux has almost too many options for learning languages, old and new.
If you want to learn MS Windows later, then buy a copy. It's hardly difficult to learn. I highly doubt any school is teaching very much about Windows system management (to the general student pop), as any sysadmin worth his salt wouldn't allow them to be used with the admin accounts. - JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When you eat enough of their food, you just start to smell like it. You can shower but it has no effect, because the smell is coming from inside you. You aren't smelling some sort of dirt or funk on the person.
Try eating a couple cloves of garlic and then exercising... you will smell like garlic. Same difference with curry and the other spices that are used heavily in Indian cuisine.
My Japanese friend says they have a word for Westerners that literally translates to "butter-burners". It describes the smell of someone who eats dairy products, which most Asians don't consume... it's not in their culture, and their rate of lactose intolerance is something around 90%. I'm of European descent but don't eat dairy due to lactose intolerance, and I've been told by Asians I don't have the butter-burner smell.
They don't seem to find the dairy-eater smell to be very offensive, just odd. -
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