Re: [SLUG] Linux and other software made in India... and lessons we can't understand...

[david.lyon@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Quoting Shakthi Kannan <askshakthimaan@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Hi,
>
> --- On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:40 PM,  <david.lyon@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> | Industry and Government work very hand in hand...
> |
> | in India it is even more so.... and what I was saying was that it has got
> | them somewhere...
> \--
>
> The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence ... or the ocean.

:-)

I wasn't trying to imply that...

It's not so bad here - footpaths are smooth to walk on - no funny  
smells everywhere - no need to be careful about what food you eat and  
no scoldings... :-)

so that wasn't my point - rather that a lot of Australians are pushed  
off overseas, even by Government IT policy... never to return...

We even have people working in our Government to get Australians  
one-way tickets to overseas to work. To me, I think that is wrong.

In India, very different. If you go off to the States or Europe and  
come back, you get some sort of god status.

But here in Australia... it is totally the opposite... going off  
overseas and coming back get's you the equivilent to leppar status...

That is why I admire that part of Indian technology philosphy.

> The reason behind using FOSS is mostly for cost cutting solutions
> rather than 'software freedom'. There are still challenges.
>
> http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Challenges

True.

But I think there are some fundimental differences between Indian and  
Western society in there.

I'm not an academic, so I can't pull that sort of stuff apart and give  
you some nice short answer.

However, open-source doesn't always mean totally free. Free software  
is something (imho) entirely different to open-source.

The point behind open source can be honesty, ie we show you our source  
because we have nothing to hide.

But then that might lead to paid services or add in products at  
additional cost.

So it can be just a marketing mechanism...

One point I liked from the link was about Indian workers only wanting  
to be paid. Of course we have that here too. Good open source projects  
always have either money coming in to pay for programming... or are  
done as some sort of communal hobby arrangement.

That is the difficult part behind open-source.. making it commercial.

Here it is a little bit easier because people do value good work and  
in theory don't mind paying for it. Reality of course is somewhat  
different but that is another story :-)

Regards

David