All the Govt. schools and colleges in my state (in India) uses Linux for education

Posted by Public_Bat_6106@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 30 comments

Kerala, a southern state in India with a current population of over 35 million, has consistently led the way in embracing free and open-source software (FOSS) across various sectors. Since 2006, the state has championed a transition to open technologies, reflecting its commitment to sustainable and accessible digital development. This movement is most evident in the education sector, where the government has seamlessly integrated FOSS into its school curricula.

this was my first introduction to linux during my high school now im posting this using my arch machine.

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Careless_Bank_7891@reddit

I'm in aktu, computer labs all have fedora

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idrinkeyedrops@reddit

Based.

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EijiUrashima@reddit

In my college,computers in our computer labs had Ubuntu. Windows was only in few computers for probably other engineering students.

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KnowZeroX@reddit

I wonder why they didn't go with BOSS Linux, from my understanding the Indian Government has been developing it for over a decade, so wonder why a state chose to go with their own instead.

Not that there is anything wrong with having different distros, just weird when the same country splits its effort

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Public_Bat_6106@reddit (OP)

The state and central govt are ruled by different political parties, soo

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Own-Tip6628@reddit

adipoli

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Littux@reddit

All thanks to V. S. Achuthanandan (passed away this year):

https://www.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/02microsoft.htm

Nearly three weeks after the Achuthanandan government banned the sale and manufacture of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products in Kerala, Microsoft has been logged out of the state-run schools.

Here on, nearly 1.5 million students in the 2,650 government and government-aided high schools in the state will no longer use the Windows platform for computer education. Instead, they have switched over to the free GNU/Linux software.

"We have decided that we will use only free software for computer education in Kerala schools. We have implemented the Linux platform in high schools; it will be implemented in other schools step by step," Kerala Education Minister M A Baby told rediff.com.

Asked if it is a deliberate decision to log out Microsoft from the state-run schools, the minister said, the plan is not targetted at any IT company. "Our policy is to migrate computer education to free software platforms. We want to make Kerala the FOSS (Free and Open Software Systems) destination in India. That is all," he added.

First, Chief Minister Achuthanandan has been a votary of free software. While in Opposition till May this year, Achuthanandan had sternly opposed the then Congress government's decision to join hands with Microsoft to launch the IT@School programme.

Second, free software guru Richard Stallman is virtually the consultant to the Kerala government's IT initiatives. Two weeks, back Stallman visited the state and convinced the government to switch over to free software systems in the educational institutions to begin with.

Stallman, in fact, gave a presentation as to how free software has been an exciting education and computing model in a Spanish province.

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Public_Bat_6106@reddit (OP)

in fact this idea was proposed by a communist chief minister of our state

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Public_Bat_6106@reddit (OP)

yes, very much

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HoldUrMamma@reddit

isn't FOSS-based, just based