[Fsf-friends] INDIA: Appeal from FSUG-Bangalore (about engineering studies)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?VTU-FLOSS_Campaign

FSUG-Bangalore | RecentChanges
VTU-FLOSS Campaign
Please Sign This letter

Vice chancellor, Visveswaraiah Technologies University, Belagum, Karnataka.

Dear Sir,

There are thousands of engineering and polytechnic colleges in India. Each year 
lakhs of graduates and diploma holders earn their degree. They pay thousands of 
rupees as fees to get the best facilities. A part of this goes to buying the 
software's which they use either in college lab or for doing assignments at 
home.For every software which they use; there is alternate Free Software 
program available. Now this shows the amount of money which we can be saved if 
we start using Free Software. This will bring down cost education considerably.

Other than cost benefits, Free Software has other advantages

     * No-fee licensing
     * Ease of license fee management
     * Better large-scale programmability
     * Easier integration
     * Better performance
     * Development convenience
* Better support

There are hundreds of Free Software's programs which colleges or universities 
can adopt. As Vishweshwaraiah Technological University is one of the biggest 
universities in India, its time for VTU to moving towards using Free Software. 
This will make other Universities to follow. Let the VTU have pride to be the 
first. Here I am giving you an example of three such alternative Free 
Software's which can be used.

* (1) Operating System: Windows v/s GNU/Linux

I don't know what university generally recommends to colleges. But presently 
almost all the colleges use Microsoft Windows based operating system. We all 
know the best available operating system today is GNU/Linux. It is the best OS 
any educational institution can have. Students can not only use it but also can 
study.

* (2) Simulation: Matlab v/s Octave

Matlab is used in communication and electronics lab. Matlab for individual 
license for university (academic use) costs $500. Any college will have to buy 
minimum 25 licenses. Which means shelling out Rs.537500. Octave, which is 
simulation software written by University professors. This usually comes with 
the GNU/Linux Operating System. The advantage to students is that they don't 
have to buy a limited student version to use at home. They can use Octave both 
at Lab and at home. SciLab? is another open source competitor for Matlab. It 
uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze data and produce lovely graphics. Now 
you have the choice which one you want to include in your curriculum.

* (3) Office software's: MS Office v/s Open Office

Well, we all used Microsoft word to submit our project documents for review and 
for other academic purposes. Now we have Open Office which is as good as MS 
office and has some feature Microsoft Office lacks like PDF support, 
compatibility with older versions of Microsoft Office, HTML editor, a vector 
drawing application .... It gives you everything starting from word processor, 
presentation software to PDF generator [Fully compatible with Microsoft Office -- 
So already existing data in those formats can be used]. Don't you think it's 
the right time to save money of a poor student ?

The above are just examples. There are many such software programs from which 
the students can benefit. We hope the university understands the urgency and 
the need. We would be happy to give you any information/help if university 
needs. Here by we urge the university to make an effort in this direction.

Thank you,

Please sign this petition

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Start Here

1. Thejesh GN. Milwaukee USA. Former student of VTU [1BT98EC047]. March 01 2005

2. Rakesh 'arky' Ambati (Bangalore India) Fri Mar 11 11:19:57 IST 2005

3. Praveen Arimbrathodiyil (National Instititute of Technology, Calicut) Fri 
Mar 11 17:34:50 IST 2005 We use GNU/Linux in our main Computer center. It saves 
a lot of money of the college as there is no licence fee to be paid for each 
users. Since the source code of the softwares are available many computer 
science students do projects based on Linux kernel and other such projects. The 
possibility of use of thin-clients (which our computer center use) reduces the 
cost of hardware dramatically. It has proved to be beneficail to our college 
and I urge you to chose Free Software for giving a better alternative for 
students.

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