I happened to start my summer internship program in AMI-Partners Inc, Bangalore. The project assigned was “Indian ISVs on Open Source Software”. As a part of the project, we are expected to interview some of the Independent Software Vendors of the country, after done with enough secondary research. Some of the facts were really shocking… there are companies who won’t pay a penny for buying software. When you struggle sourcing money for potential investments, why the hell paying damn software companies?
No, I am not preaching software piracy!!!
Let’s see what are the essential (something very subjective) tools needed in your computer for day to day activities. Operating system, Word processing tools, Spreadsheets, Presentation tools, Internet browser, Image manipulation tools, Audio-Video processing tools, Security and software…what else?
Traditionally when we buy a PC or laptop, it will have pre-installed version of Microsoft windows. And mostly the buyer will be given with a pirated CD of Microsoft Office and other packaged applications.
Windows Vista: It has gained another “f” word as adjective! You pay (approximate) Rs. 6,000 (Basic Edition) to Rs. 12,000/- (Vista Ultimate) for it, which will force you to add another 1GB RAM. Whatsoever your configuration is, your machine will resemble a mollusk in an year’s time…. Why the heck should one pay for Microsoft for these??? Why can’t we have Linux???
I have tried RedHat Linux on my PC as a secondary operating system sometime back (1998-2002). I dropped the idea later for two reasons. (A). increasingly complex installation process (B). Frequent crashes. The text based installation system demanded a good knowledge on PC file system, hard disk structure and a lot of trial and error to get the system running. It was way too complex. Yet, I was forced to do it as I had to implement my curriculum project (Protocol Analyzer for Linux based systems – developed using Unix, C and GTK+) on Linux.
The scenario has been changed a lot. Linux has many more versions and brands, most of them are amazingly reliable and much simpler than Windows Operating System. Ubuntu Linux installation files occupy only less than 300 MB on your hard disk. After all, it has no “adipose tissues” to add weight on your hardware.
Why not we go for the combination of Linux (OS – instead of Windows Vista), Open Office (Word processing tool – instead of MS Office), Mozila Firefox (Web Browser – instead of IE), GOMPlayer (Media player – instead of Windows media player), Winpooch (Open source anti-virus: instead of any damn anti-virus package)… you name the application and we can find an alternative for them…except for higher end engineering design and simulation tools – for which you may have to wait. It is happening in the industry.
No software cost!!! No need to upgrade hardware!!! There is an alternative for any licensed application!!!
Why not we start from Praxis… Let’s free Praxis from licenses and bindings!!!
1 comment:
It a very interesting suggestion. Let me take my own example and think why would I pay Microsoft and not use the open source. If you remember, before getting MS office we used open office, it was sometimes a nightmare to use specially when the last minute formatting work took hours and you still don't get the desire result.
Also most of us are use to the MS office style and commands, that it becomes bit difficult to move to a new interface.
If I take example of software (open source) with my limited knowledge believe takes more set-up time that those paid version from Microsoft and others. So one may need more resource time (correct me if I am wrong). Take our own example of Praxis, we don't have a library management system, and if I am not wrong Dr. Mukherjee would like open source and not pay to Microsoft & others. If we decided to purchase one we could atleast said we a IT-enabled B-school.
There are pros and cons for both, one has to do cost-benefit analysis, which does where do I pay less, it can also mean where do I save more and the time to do so............
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