pcwelt.de— India is expanding a government-led program to provide free, local language software to all of its citizens, as it tries to broaden computer use in the country.
Jul 29, 2006View in Crawl 4
Jun168, You're speaking as if None of the kids in India have money... yes the poverty numbers are high but so is the population. Secondly it's not like everyone in America is well rounded... go check out south side chicago and stl. You'll see what I'm talking about.... there's projects and all... It's like media showing just those Projects and the "ghetto" to the rest of the world and saying o that's how all of america is. I've moved to India and lived there for more than 11 years. The Electricity in 2 of my mansions in different city is fine. The water is fine. The roads are fine (Oh btw, a person down the street from me bought a lamborghini and roads seem to be fine for it) :)And last but not least.... A lot of Indian Doctors/Engineers and other science realted professionals leave India because they get paid more in countries like US. Look up any major U.S corp. they will most likely have an Indian in the board members... to name a few... IBM... Microsoft.. Sun... the list can go on....
@buzzert: yea its true most of the softwares that r used are pirated. but giving free softwares means you can get an official software with updates for no cost. are v trying to kill piracy? maybe yes.
I fail to understand why so many people are so supportive of a program like this, other than a basic failure to understand modern economics, or a naive view of proper fiscal policy.There are very clear reasons that India has as much poverty as it does, and they are government regulation, and governmental central planning. Essentially the economy has consistently been choked by the government. Though the political, and thus the economic, situation in India has improved vastly over recent years, old habits die hard. If there was serious demand for software in local languages, then why can't the private sector develop that software? God knows there are enough programmers in India to do such a thing.At the same time India is going back and forth about the legality of Blogs, it is trying to ensure that every citizen has access to free software in his own language. This paradox is an obvious result of unnecessary overt government interaction in a private industry. Do you think that it is the government's job to ensure that everyone in a country has access to free software? Do you think this should happen in America? Surely everyone on this page who seems to have a sworn vendetta against Microsoft would enjoy it if the U.S. Government had such a program of free software. But it is obvious that such a suggestion is ridiculous.Think about the situation in India. If you are a poor citizen with a computer or access to one, and no private Internet connection, as seems to be the situation with many people, then how does this program benefit you? Why would you be in favor of government subsidized software instead of using that surplus money to lower taxes?Realistically, the better way to improve the lives of Indian citizens is to remove restrictions on the technology industry, and stop meddling in government subsidized software development. This will attract foreign investment, which in turn will improve the lives of Indian citizens and probably their computer use.If you think that Microsoft, the most successful software company in the world, develops buggy and insecure software, imagine what a third-rate government bureaucracy would produce.
This is a great idea for India, and would benefit many other countries as well. Open source software benefits a country directly, whereas adoption of Micosoft OS's and software only benefits Microsoft.
josegutzJul 29, 2006
They should instead maybe concentrate on giving them electricity and computers first off
buzzertJul 30, 2006
My friend just came back from India, he said everybody pirates software there. So this will hardly make a dent.
pixelmixerJul 30, 2006
AOL??? That still exists?
twiztedambienceJul 30, 2006
hey genius, a lot of the nuclear deal involves india's nuclear power generators
kuljeetJul 30, 2006
Jun168, You're speaking as if None of the kids in India have money... yes the poverty numbers are high but so is the population. Secondly it's not like everyone in America is well rounded... go check out south side chicago and stl. You'll see what I'm talking about.... there's projects and all... It's like media showing just those Projects and the "ghetto" to the rest of the world and saying o that's how all of america is. I've moved to India and lived there for more than 11 years. The Electricity in 2 of my mansions in different city is fine. The water is fine. The roads are fine (Oh btw, a person down the street from me bought a lamborghini and roads seem to be fine for it) :)And last but not least.... A lot of Indian Doctors/Engineers and other science realted professionals leave India because they get paid more in countries like US. Look up any major U.S corp. they will most likely have an Indian in the board members... to name a few... IBM... Microsoft.. Sun... the list can go on....
axelandJul 30, 2006
@buzzert: yea its true most of the softwares that r used are pirated. but giving free softwares means you can get an official software with updates for no cost. are v trying to kill piracy? maybe yes.
Closed AccountJul 30, 2006
35 % exactly.As of May 2006 India had 357 million fluent english speakers.
pbbakkumJul 30, 2006
I fail to understand why so many people are so supportive of a program like this, other than a basic failure to understand modern economics, or a naive view of proper fiscal policy.There are very clear reasons that India has as much poverty as it does, and they are government regulation, and governmental central planning. Essentially the economy has consistently been choked by the government. Though the political, and thus the economic, situation in India has improved vastly over recent years, old habits die hard. If there was serious demand for software in local languages, then why can't the private sector develop that software? God knows there are enough programmers in India to do such a thing.At the same time India is going back and forth about the legality of Blogs, it is trying to ensure that every citizen has access to free software in his own language. This paradox is an obvious result of unnecessary overt government interaction in a private industry. Do you think that it is the government's job to ensure that everyone in a country has access to free software? Do you think this should happen in America? Surely everyone on this page who seems to have a sworn vendetta against Microsoft would enjoy it if the U.S. Government had such a program of free software. But it is obvious that such a suggestion is ridiculous.Think about the situation in India. If you are a poor citizen with a computer or access to one, and no private Internet connection, as seems to be the situation with many people, then how does this program benefit you? Why would you be in favor of government subsidized software instead of using that surplus money to lower taxes?Realistically, the better way to improve the lives of Indian citizens is to remove restrictions on the technology industry, and stop meddling in government subsidized software development. This will attract foreign investment, which in turn will improve the lives of Indian citizens and probably their computer use.If you think that Microsoft, the most successful software company in the world, develops buggy and insecure software, imagine what a third-rate government bureaucracy would produce.
aklblueJul 30, 2006
This is a great idea for India, and would benefit many other countries as well. Open source software benefits a country directly, whereas adoption of Micosoft OS's and software only benefits Microsoft.
xr22Nov 14, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://3couleurs.blogspot.com">http://3couleurs.blogspot.com</a>
krutinDec 11, 2006
ppl with any doubts on how things work in india this is a gr8 video to watch<a class="user" href="http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437">http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437</a>