The Hindu : Kerala News : Kerala kickstarts Linux usage with 100-plus help centres

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 22, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala kickstarts Linux usage with 100-plus help centres

By Anand Parthasarathy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 21. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it — ran American humorist Mark Twain's quip about the weather. It can just as well be applied to the dozens of well-meaning but impractical initiatives attempting to help lay computer users in India migrate from proprietary systems to the free-and-open environment of Linux — if they so choose.

LiTE centres

Now, appropriately enough, from the 100 per cent literacy State comes a down-to-earth initiative that may yet prove Mark Twain — and nay-sayers of open software — wrong: A low key ceremony in the office of the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, on Wednesday, saw the launch of a programme anchored by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), where 107 computer training institutes spread across all 14 districts of Kerala have been beefed up as `Linux Technology Extension (LiTE) centres.'

Crucial service

Every centre would soon provide customers with practical help in configuring their PCs around the Linux operating system — a crucial service since professional help is often required in finding the necessary `drivers' that will make popular peripherals such as printers, CD/DVD drivers, webcams, scanners and modems, work smoothly with Open Source software.

Training programme

The centres will also provide training in Linux applications, in installing the `OpenOffice' suite and will sell for a nominal cost C-DIT-developed tools such as the `Kairali Linux' distribution, localised for the Malayalam font, as well as one of the first Indian language primers on Free Software, the Malayalam-language book, `Swathanthra Softwayerum GNU/Linuxum,' which is priced at just Rs.55.

`Practical problems'

The author of the book and C-DIT Director, Achuthsankar S. Nair, told The Hindu : "We feel the debate on free versus proprietary software is best left to academics.

For ordinary people who for whatever reason — economic or ideological — want to migrate to Linux, there are a lot of practical problems and many hardware-related irritants remain. We would like to make migration easier — particularly for the thousands in Kerala who are left out of the computer revolution because there are few tools in Malayalam."

A small but dedicated Open Source Technology (OST) Team at C-DIT is currently training the resource persons who will soon fan out to the 100-plus LiTE service centres in the State. Many of the trainees insisted on starting their training on Saraswathi pooja day during Dussera this weekend.

"We are making our Open Source `Vidyarambham' this year," one LiTE centre head said.

Instructional CDs

Earlier, C-DIT also helped the Kerala State IT Mission with instructional CDs to back the Akshaya e-literacy programme. User enthusiasm forced the centre to quickly complement the original Windows-based version with another based on its own Kairali Linux version.

Malayalam version

It has also created a Malayalam version of a popular CD — Chithrakkuduka— containing thousands of `ethnic' clip art pictures and music tracks with an ethnic Kerala flavour.

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