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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

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.]

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