Earlier this week, Hindu reported on how “Come June 30, over 80 lakh college students all over India would have little choice but to use Microsoft Office 365 in their college computers, locked by a government contract that may well be more expensive than the use of an open source equivalent in the long run.”
The report then claimed “The decision by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) will limit engineering students to a particular product at a time when their exposure should be widened, say experts. It also forces college administrations to adopt one technology instead of giving them the flexibility to install whatever suits their students’ needs best, they said.”
The report also claims that “Open-source software such as Linux has become popular among college students in recent times as its zero-cost approach promotes inclusivity” and quotes a faculty member of a Bangalore college, complaining that the use of Office 365 would limit students to Microsoft’s perspective and “stand in the way of serious open-source research in rural colleges”.
It turns out that the Hindu got a substantial portion of its story wrong. In a clarification published in the Hindu the next day, Microsoft clarifies that there is no question of the service being more expensive since it was a free of cost service. The remaining clarification points out to other inaccuracies in the Hindu story.
Apart from the obviously poor reporting by the Hindu, there is the issue of whether AICTE should be issuing such standards.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big fuss is about. The AICTE clearly has the power to mandate minimum standards for colleges and if the software is for free, I don’t see the problem. Whether the open source community likes it or not, Microsoft software is way more popular in this country than open source software. I really don’t think the adoption of Microsoft Office 365 will interfere with “serious open-source research in rural colleges”. Besides, I’m not quite sure how adopting a cloud computing service would affect the ability of students to experiment with Open Source software like Linux. AICTE has not barred anybody from using Open Source software in addition.
Earlier the Open Source community had a problem when Microsoft used to price their products expensively and now they have a problem when Microsoft offers their products for free.
So why exactly is Microsoft doing this – probably a marketing move – catch them while they are young so they use your products when they graduate and start working – it’s a smart move. Of course, that presuming that a majority of Indian colleges have computers and the electricity that goes along with the computers.
This post suggests that the author has an issue with Free/Open Source Community and Softwares. What The Hindu had reported is that why public funded institution should go for a proprietary software. The FOSS community express their concern about ‘Freedom’ not price! The author posts that AICTE has freedom to use any software and has not barred anybody! When every business is done using the proprietary software how come any student would use FOSS? I would share an example. One of our official site is only compatible with Internet Explorer and I don’t use Windows! Other browsers are not allowing me to use that official site!
Quick points
1 – “Earlier the Open Source community had a problem when Microsoft used to price their products expensively and now they have a problem when Microsoft offers their products for free. ” – In Free and Open Source Software, Free stands for Free speech and not free as in free beer.
AICTE has no option to customise the software being offered or even host it on its own servers.
2 – Quote: “Besides, I’m not quite sure how adopting a cloud computing service would affect the ability of students to experiment with Open Source software like Linux.” – You are correct here. It may not do any harm for tinkering with the source code. However, issues can arise when students want to use the software. For example: documents created in the Microsoft’s propriety format (doc / docx) are incompatible with Open Source equivalents to Microsoft Office. By making mandatory the use of Microsoft Office, this incompatibility will force people to abandon use of Open Source Softwares. Open Source Software are much much more than merely Linux.
3 – “… there is the issue of whether AICTE should be issuing such standards.” – I disagree with you. AICTE has not issued any standards, it has only said that Microsoft Live@edu will be implemented. In my opinion, it would be ok if AICTE had issued standards and left it open for partner institutes to implement them as they felt fit. Here a monopoly is being created.
@gjgj:
1. If Microsoft had been a free software, in the sense of free beer, I don’t think anybody would have had any complaints with it – a large part of the FOSS movement was based on this complaint. Of course, this is not to distract from your point that the FOSS movement represents something more than just free beer.
2. Could you expand on your second point? I have used both Open Office and Microsoft Office and both softwares are compatible with each other. Why do you claim otherwise?
3. A monopoly is created only when AICTE mandates the use of only Microsoft software and no other software. That is not the case. All colleges are free to use any other software provided they also use Microsoft’s software which is available for free.
Regards,
Prashant
Dear Prashant
1 – The complaint with Microsoft has not got to do with the price at which it sells its software, rather it is to do with the restrictive terms and conditions under which it does so. Even FOSS software can be sold at a price.
2 – Linux based operating system distributions have shifted from Open Office to LibreOffice. As a regular user of LibreOffice, the complex formatting (Tables, picture inserts, text boxes) fail to open correctly in LibreOffice [especially docx format]. I haven’t worked in Open Office for a long while, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you about it.
3 – I take your point. However, people would be disinclined to switch between two systems because of the inconvenience of doing so, thus creating a virtual monopoly.
Regards
Harjodh
Ps: My careless mistake, My blogger profile showed “gjgj” earlier.
The post states that “So why exactly is Microsoft doing this – probably a marketing move – catch them while they are young so they use your products when they graduate and start working – it’s a smart move.” Ofcourse, this is a smart move. First to capture the market and then raise the prices and recoup the investments.
Further in one reply by Prashant to comment by gjgj, Prashant writes that ” All colleges are free to use any other software provided they also use Microsoft’s software which is available for free.” The use of word ‘provided they also use’ hints at some thing like tying.
And comparing this with the DU copyright controversy, it seems that in Microsoft case the blog tends to take bit different approach. I totally agree with the stand taken in DU case that such restrictive practices for banning course material will be against fair use. Strange to see that AICTE is marketing for Microsoft!!
Would be happy to know your views on this ?
Anon – Like we’ve stated earlier, there is no common blog view. I have openly disagreed with Shamnad’s views on the DU photocopying and if you scroll back to some of my posts on the blog last year, you can read my posts on the topic.
Like I’ve said in the comments earlier, there is hardly any strong argument against AICTE mandating the use of a free software. I just don’t see the problem with such a notification.
Prashant
Hi Harjodh,
1. I disagree with you, the biggest complaint against Microsoft is almost always the price. For the common man like me, we hardly care about the restrictive terms and conditions about the conditions of use. Even amongst all the AICTE approved colleges, only a small minority of CS students who want the flexibility to tinker around with software. Most students don’t really care – its just an electronic typewriter for them. For the minority, they are free to use any software they wish.
2. I’ve used Open Office documents with Microsoft and I haven’t seen any issues. In any case, even presuming LibreOffice isn’t working with Microsoft, the problem could be with either software right? Besides interoperability of software will always have some issues.
3. Certain products and markets tend to lend themselves to a monopoly more than other. Office software is one such market but even Microsoft is facing the heat in the ‘paid’ cloud computing service. Its facing competition and that is a good thing.
Prashant
hi Prashant
Thanks for d reply
But I wont agree with you on this. As you said “there is hardly any strong argument against AICTE mandating the use of a free software”.
I really appreciate that there is no common blog view, but individuals view are aired. I was wondering what would be your take if the blog mandated & recommended to follow only Shamnad’s view !(like AICTE is recommending for Microsoft). Well, I understand that this might be not be a usual comparison.
And its 2nd time (first was on this post only) I am commenting on this blog. But would like to acknowledge that you people are doing great work. few initiatives in India giving platform for meaningful discourse on such issues. Thanks