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Government of Indian State Fully Adopts FOSS in Schools; Saves $45M

posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the enough-toe-dipping,-already dept.

-- 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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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:48AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:48AM (#476349)

    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

    by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <{axehandle} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday March 08 2017, @11:09AM (#476392)

    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.