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.
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