BGR (originally Boy Genius Report) reports
The Kerala government has made a saving of Rs 300 crore through introduction and adoption of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) in the school education sector, said a state government official [February 26]. IT became a compulsory subject in Kerala schools from 2003, but it was [only in 2005] that FOSS was introduced in a phased manner and started to replace proprietary software.
[...] "The proprietary version of this software would have incurred a minimum cost of Rs 150,000 per machine [$2250] in terms of [license] fee. Hence, the minimum savings in a year (considering 20,000 machines) is Rs 300 crore [$45M]. It's not the cost saving that matters more, but the fact that the Free Software [license] enables not only teachers and students but also the general public an opportunity to copy, distribute, and share the contents and use it as they wish", [said K. Anwar Sadath, executive director IT@School.]
Related Stories
The state of Kerala, India, has opened Swatantra, the largest government FOSS center in the world. Swatantra falls under the auspices of Kerala's International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS). In 2001, Kerala adopted a formal, pro-FOSS technology policy.
'Swatantra', an initiative of International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), will house the FOSS incubation centre and training space. It is aimed at enhancing the government's agenda of promoting democratic access to information with the objective of sustainable economic development.
Earlier on SN:
Government of Indian State Fully Adopts FOSS in Schools; Saves $45M (2017)
Government of India Adopts FOSS Preferred Policy (2015)
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:46AM (3 children)
All it takes is for Microsoft to open an office, and start courting the decision makers. The state will reverse it's decision to go open source.
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3170104/linux/munichs-great-linux-desktop-initiative-may-end.html [networkworld.com]
Was performance of LiMux and LibreOffice really the reason?
However, ZDNet theorizes that the problem isn't with the software but the 2014 election of mayor Dieter Reiter, whom the head of Europe's Free Software Foundation claims was against free software from the beginning and that Reiter was an enthusiastic supporter of Microsoft moving its German headquarters to Munich.
Last year, Reiter commissioned a report from consultants, which included Microsoft partner Accenture, that concluded staff should be given the option of using Windows 10 and Microsoft Office.
The council will also phase out the use of the Thunderbird email client and LibreOffice suite and replace them with “market standard products” that offer the “highest possible compatibility” with external and internal software.
Well, I'm just shocked that politics would play a role in such a decision. Not surprised, either.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:40AM
Where's the mod for "unfortunately true?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:05AM
Free Software Foundation Europe got its foot in the door and this was added to the thingie: [fsfe.org]
[1] That's what they paid Accenture big bucks to tell them.
I'm still wondering just how long it will be before the taxpayers of Munich rebel against their spendthrift politicians (tens of millions in estimated additional costs for no gain).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @07:09AM
The Head of Munich's central IT (their organizational structures are not as simple as you'd perhaps guess ...) had the following to say on LiMux: "There are no bigger technical issues"
Source (major german IT-news portal, in German):
https://m.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Muenchner-IT-Leiter-zu-LiMux-Es-gibt-keine-groesseren-technischen-Probleme-3644868.html [heise.de]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:51AM (3 children)
I mean, looking to the Munich case, the result is: Microsoft moved the regional headquarters into the rebel city.
Perhaps the Kerala government hopes for the same?
Having some Accenture headquarters there (to advice moving back to Windows 2027) would be a bonus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:31AM (2 children)
The Accenture report will, in part say "estimate savings of $[very large number], based on support cost modelling which would be true if removing proprietry software had cost $1000 per computer, per year"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:16AM (1 child)
The Accenture report has already come back.
What it said was that apps should be OS-agnostic.
The politicians have attempted to IGNORE the recommendation for which they paid so much.
A previous submission on this topic said [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:19AM
So.. Office365?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DECbot on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:40AM
It's not the cost saving that matters more, but the fact that the Free Software [license] enables not only teachers and students but also the general public an opportunity to copy, distribute, and share the contents and use it as they wish", [said K. Anwar Sadath, executive director IT@School.]
It's refreshing to see that somebody with authority gets it. It's not just the licenses for the public computers, it's software at home, the business, the universities... The cycles of forced upgrades and abandoned code. The freedom to form the code to fit your usage. Seeing the cost of the big picture is what makes Mr. Sadath a great public servant.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:37AM (2 children)
I'd like to see what stuff they were using and, specifically, what volume discounts they were getting.
Yeah. Undoubtedly forbidden to talk about that under NDA.
A decade ago, this guy made up a list of stuff to put on his box and compared the totals.
How I saved over $4000 on software [nilkanth.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:48AM (1 child)
Yeah that does seem high. VERY high. Hell you could kit out a whole very nice computer with that with a full MS stack from any pretty much any major OEM for half that easily.
Most MS software includes office + windows. That is *AT MOST* 600 bucks. Schools also usually get killer discounts. Think more along the lines of 50-60 bucks total per computer. I recently looked into it to get some donations for a library I frequent.
Something smells here. Someone was pocketing some serious money.
BTW can you just log in already? :)
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday March 08 2017, @11:09AM
Most MS software includes office + windows. That is *AT MOST* 600 bucks.
Computer?
- say $1000
Software?
- say $600
Living in fear of a bsa software audit?
- priceless.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:50PM
Unless $ is the only relevant currency symbol