[Fsf-friends] NEWS: India neutral on Linux-MSN issue: Shourie

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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India neutral on Linux-MSN issue: Shourie

By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, Apr 1 (IANS) India is neutral in the open source vs. proprietary
software debate and will adopt a policy that will serve the country better,
Minister for IT Arun Shourie said Tuesday.

Making it clear that the government would not take a stand on supporting
either the Linux or Microsoft platforms, he said no circular had been issued
by his ministry to support either.

Shourie's statement is the first categorical one from the government, which
has been besieged by supporters of open source and proprietary software to
promote their platforms.

"I am not prepared to give a carte blanche. In India there is too much of
'either ... or'. There should be 'also' too", Shourie told reporters here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a function to dedicate Param Padma, a
one teraflop super computing cluster that is the largest in the Asia-Pacific
region outside Japan.

Decisions on the MSN-Linux issues would be taken on a "case by case basis.
For instance, CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) will
decide what will serve the country better," Shourie maintained.

The open source platform provides the code for developers to modify for
their applications. This code is not available in proprietary software. The
campaign has been termed freedom against dependency.

The debate on the issue got a fillip when Microsoft head Bill Gates visited
India last year to push for proprietary software in the wake of the growing
inroads by Linux among India's 500,000-strong developer community.

Gates as well as supporters of open source like IBM and Sun Microsystems
have committed millions of dollars to promote their platforms.

"If there is a security product that we need and supposing it is required
immediately and someone else has it, are we going to say we will develop it
ourselves?" Shourie asked.

Speaking after inaugurating the C-DAC facility, Shourie said "sensitive
organizations should use indigenous software and hardware because bugs can
develop several years later".

--Indo-Asian News Service