India can live without Microsoft

In an interview with the Deccan Chronicle, Mr C Umashankar, who is the managing director of state-owned Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), which is running the project, said that India does not need Vole.

Umashankar said that his government is fast migrating to Linux operating systems which are so much cheaper and can be operated at low cost, besides offering continuous updates and freedom from viruses.

More than 6,500 Linux systems have already been packed off to villages and another 6,100 Acer desktop systems with Suse on their way.

Umashankar said that more than 20,000 desktop systems will be installed in schools that will only run on Suse. All ELCOT servers will run on Redhat. ELCOT expects to train 30,000 government officials in Linux and Open Office too.

Umashankar said that Vole might find it tough without a huge country like India buying its software. It is not that Vole did not try to convert the Tamil Nadu government. Umashankar had two visits from a top Vole to try and get him to change his mind but the money they were talking was silly.

The Microsoft sales person started off with a price of US $1,555 per seat. Umashankar said if she dropped it to US $225 he would consider it. She didn't so neither did he. He told her for US $135 per seat he could get the entire operating system, office productivity software and a wide range of utility tools, such as DVD/CD writing software, database software, multimedia editing software, vector map-drawing software plus a whole range of software development tools.

You can read a translation of the interview here. µ