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Kannur varsity students help reduce hardware cost

KOCHI: Even as talks between the State Government and Microsoft are deadlocked over the issue of using legal software, the hardware optimisation for schools in Kannur parliamentary constituency is being implemented on a free software platform – GNU/Linux.

The IT@School programme will be taught in Kannur schools utilising this facility.

The usage of Etherboot on GNU/Linux has helped in reducing the hardware cost of the project to less than 66 percent and will help schools to have more computers. All this was possible because of the technical support rendered by a bunch of students of Kannur varsity’s MSc Computer Science course and the Social Entrepreneurship Promotion Society on Information Technology (SEPSIT), the charitable society they floated recently for promoting use of software under General Public Licence (GPL).

The money for the project comes from the MP’s fund and the savings can be used to buy more than 50 additional computers, says Manoj T R, a third semester student of the MSc Computer Science course and director of SEPSIT.

The organisation, which has the backing of the faculties of the Kannur University MSc Computer Science, aims at enhancing social entrepreneurship among IT professionals and nurturing technology education geared to creation of public intellectual property in IT. The society, which has the active participation of nearly 70 software professionals, will operate throughout the State from its office in Dinesh Software Park.

SEPSIT had to work overtime to convince the officials of the National Informatics Centre which is the nodal agency for approving computerisation projects under the MP’s fund. The order for 140 computers worth Rs 26 lakh was given to Keltron Controls, Aroor, only after it was convinced of the technology utilising Etherboot on GNU/Linux platform. Keltron Controls is supplying 43 server configurated PCs and 97 nodes for the project.

Each school will have a server and four or five diskless nodes. The drastic cost reduction is possible because devices like hard disks, floppy drives, CD drives and UPS can be cut down in the client server mode. There is a saving of Rs 9000 per school and the money can be used for purchasing more computers. Around 185 computers in Linux platform can be purchased using the Rs 45 lakh pledged by Kannur MP A P Abdullakkutty against the 130 that can be bought while using proprietary software.

Keltron Controls has also bagged the order for computerisation of schools in Alappuzha district from V M Sudheeran MP’s fund. The order for over 700 computers (5 PCs for one school) using proprietary software is pegged at Rs 2 crore.

SEPSIT has now formulated a strategy to train the teachers of these schools in Linux Administration, usage of free software tools like Open Office (and other free office tools), Xine (and other multi-media applications), and BASIC programming on GNU/Linux platform. SEPSIT also has the computerisation project of Kannur University using free software tools in hand.