Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Promote use of open source software, students told

PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

Keen participants:Students from various colleges attending a workshop on Free Open Source Software at Velalar College of Engineering and Technology in Erode on Sunday. —

ERODE: The engineering and technology students were called upon to work together to promote and encourage the use of open source software at all possible levels of computing.

Participating in the State-level workshop on Free and Open Source Software organised by the Free Software Foundation – Tamil Nadu at Velalar College of Engineering and Technology here on Saturday and Sunday, resource persons said that open source was a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. “The open source promises better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in,” they said.

Ideas

Students in developing nations such as India should start harnessing the power of open source technologies, which were cost-effective. In the open source world, users were allowed to see the code, change it and learn from it. “The sum total of human knowledge is the result of the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies and research. But a majority of the software in use in our computers is closed and locked,” resource persons pointed out.

Students could derive huge amount of benefits by using open source software. “As students can see the source code, they are presented with opportunities to experiment with the software. There are a large number of job opportunities available for students in open source platform,” the resource persons said.

Sessions on the benefits of using Ubuntu, a popular Linux operating system, Structured Query Language, Python, open source initiatives in Tamil computing and community development were held.

Members from the Foundation, Shanu Sukoor, Baskar, Praveen Chandrahas, Alavu Nambi Welkin, Sibiraj, Thangamani Arun and Anand conducted the sessions. Over 300 students from various engineering colleges in the State participated in the workshop.

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