[Fsf-friends] FROM INDIA: Free software development for e-gov...

[Mahesh T. Pai]

Umashankar C said on Mon, Sep 01, 2003 at 03:47:49AM -0700,:

 > The development platform envisaged is Sun Java and deployment can be
 >  on any free tool such as Tomcat etc.

I'm  afraid   that  there   is  some  problem   there.  Java   is  not
swatantra. You get it free of cost though. That always need not be the
case,  because   re-distribution  is  prohibited.   "swatantra"  is  a
different concept.

> The database envisaged is POSTGRESQL. 

Yes, that is very popular, and swatantra.

 >   At present these packages are in VB. Conversion to J2E has to take
 > place within a period of, say 4-6 months. In the meanwhile the
 > design, documentation etc., can be placed online for free download
 > for use as well as to suggest better ways.

As  I pointed  out,  Java is  not  swatantra. But,  software which  is
otherwise swatantra, but depends on java  is popular. It is not a good
idea for software which has  looooooong term use, like in e-governance
to depend on non-free compilers and VMs.

An alternative would be to use jikes / kaffe, which claim to be
substitutes for java. 


-- 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
                                          
  Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M.,                   
  'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road,               
  Ernakulam, Cochin-682018,               
  Kerala, India.                          
                                          
  http://in.geocities.com/paivakil         
                                          
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