[PLUG] Gates offers to buy India

[Rich Shepard]

  I suppose it's a reasonable assumption that he could buy India after
buying the curent Administration here.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

                    Tux Fights Bux for the Soul of India

   Thursday, November 14, 2002--I worked in radio back during that
   industry's Jurassic, when disc jockeys still picked the music and it
   was okay for everybody to have fun. Even commercial stations were
   about as corporate as the corner bar.

   My best years were spent at WDBS, a commercial "progressive" rocker
   incongruously owned but not operated by Duke University. Its operators
   were a bunch of deeply committed and barely organized folks who, in
   retrospect, resembled the free software and open-source cadres of
   today.

   With no profit motive and the lousiest signal on the dial, we had a
   hard time selling advertising. So we'd make up ads for things that
   didn't exist and run those instead. Many were by a weird announcer
   named Doctor Dave. That was me. My nickname today is a fossil remnant
   of that old radio persona.

   We ran ads for Bangweasel Stone & Rubber Company, Mumbling Pines
   Apartment Village and Wellington Raffelators. In many cases the actual
   nature of the business was left unrevealed. "If you need a pipe
   cleaned or a zipper laid, we'll do the job for you... remember you
   can't take a customer without taking his money."

   One fake ad with a recognizable purpose pushed a record collection
   that consisted of "All the world's most beautiful music, all at once."
   The listener was then treated to an overdubbed blast of countless
   simultaneous music selections.

   That's kind of the way I feel about the current news about the
   conflict between Microsoft and Linux in India, where Bill Gates is
   touring right now, causing free PR for Linux wherever he goes.

   Still, I've managed to put together a chronology of Our Story So Far.
   If it reads like a series of dispatches from The Front, well... maybe
   it is.

     * October 10 - The Inquirer:
       http://inquirerinside.com/?article=5767 writes "India Moving to
       Linux", explaining things this way:

     India's government Department of Information Technology has
     announced a sweeping initiative (the Linux India Initiative) to
     move the entire country to Linux as its "platform of choice"...

     The plan is to establish Linux in Indian academic institutions as
     well as throughout central and state government offices. India's
     business sector also is likely to move to Linux for its lower costs
     and to employ the Linux skills developed in the large Indian IT
     workforce.

     As a developing country, India feels the bite of expensive
     proprietary software licenses much more acutely than other
     countries with mature economies. Enforcing intellectual property
     rights--as India has pledged to do--will spur its takeup of Linux
     open-source software.

     * November 11 - The William and Melinda Gates Foundation:
       http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globalhealth/hivaidstb/hivaids/anno
       uncements/announcement-021111.htm grants $100 million for an
       HIV/AIDs initiative in India.
     * November 11 - The Washington Post:
       http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38446-2002Nov11.htm
       l reports that the Gates' generosity follows suspiciously close on
       the heels of news about the Linux India Initiative.
     * November 11 - Business World India runs "The War for India's
       Software Soul":
       http://www.businessworldindia.com/cover1.htm. An excerpt:

     The battle has spilled over into India. Look around. There are
     noises being made about how proactively the government is
     considering Linux. The Supreme Court has a few pilot projects
     underway. So have High Courts in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The
     Central Excise Department has moved 1,000 desktops to Linux. The
     Delhi Road Transport Office (RTO) has implemented a pilot [program]
     to examine its viability. C-DAC, the government's supercomputing
     arm, has moved lock, stock and barrel to Linux.

     Then there is the National Stock Exchange - among the early
     adopters who used Linux to implement a solution unique to stock
     exchanges anywhere in the world. Corporates like Asian Paints and
     IDBI are cheerleading the free source OS. Others like Reliance,
     Texas Instruments, the Times of India group (publishers of The
     Times of India), Raymond, Bombay Dyeing, Godrej Infotech, HDFC
     Bank, Hindustan Dorr Oliver, Central Railways and Air-India have
     deployed Linux to power at least a part of their backends.
     At premier educational institutions like the Indian Institute of
     Technology, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Bhabha
     Atomic Research Centre, Linux exists - de facto. Those not on the
     bandwagon, are slowly getting onto it. To get a sense of that, step
     into the Sardar Patel Engineering College in Andheri, Mumbai.
     You'll find people like Dinesh Shah, Trevor Warren and Harsh Busa
     of the Mumbai Linux Users Group (MLUG) bubbling with enthusiasm. On
     weekends, they spend time at educational institutions across the
     country spreading the gospel of Linux in neatly slotted two-day
     workshops. In Maharashtra, the clamour for their workshops has gone
     up because the government made Linux mandatory to their curriculum,
     beginning this year. "Catch them young and watch them grow," says
     Trevor gleefully.

     * November 12 - Business Times Asia runs "Bill Gates lands in India
       amid a Linux debate":
       http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,2276,63470,00.html
       , adding this about the initiative:

     Just weeks before Mr Gates' impending arrival, officials in India's
     Department of Information Technology in New Delhi leaked details of
     an effort called the Linux India Initiative. It is meant to promote
     Linux for use in government departments and corporations.
     Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan has declined to
     discuss the initiative. "I don't want to comment on Linux so close
     to Gates' visit," he said last week.

     * November 12 - Microsoft establishes a $400 million fund:
       http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/Nov02/11-12IndiaPR.a
       sp for various development projects in India
     * November 12 - Bill Gates announces an additional $20 million:
       http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=21608
       to spread computer education in Indian schools. And somewhere in
       there, Microsoft also became the commercial investor in the Media
       Lab Asia project, investing $1 million, bringing the total to $421
       million.
     * November 12 - ZDNet runs "MS invests in India--to stave off
       Linux?":
       http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-965378.html
     * November 13 - The Register's Thomas C. Green writes:
       http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28063.html, "That means
       that Linux is more than four times worse than AIDS to Billg and
       his happy Redmond family."
     * November 13 - The Hindustan Times:
       http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_101371,0003.htm carries a
       Reuters story that opens this way:

     Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates coaxed Indian engineers on
     Wednesday to use his firm's proprietary software, as he dismissed
     threats to his Windows system from rival Linux in the battle over
     network computing.

     The world's richest man, on the third day of his trip to India,
     didn't bring any gifts, but instead delivered a sales pitch in the
     nation's technology capital. More than 1,000 software companies are
     based in Bangalore.

     Gates, who said on Tuesday that his firm would invest $400 million
     in India over three years on education, partnerships and boosting
     its own software centre, used his Bangalore visit to promote
     Microsoft's .NET (dot-net) network platforms and tools.

     * November 13 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
       http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/95307_india13.shtml opens
       their story along pretty much the same lines:

     NEW DELHI, India--Hoping to stave off a rise in the popularity of
     free, open-source software, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates
     announced yesterday a $400 million investment in India to expand
     the company's operations and boost computer literacy.

     * November 13 - The Financial Express:
       http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=21608
       writes that Gates "ducked a couple of Linux-related questions"
       before "replying to a pointed questions on Linux" with a dig at
       Sun. "There is a visible shift in UNIX space from Sun platforms to
       Linux. In fact, it is Sun which is losing market share to Linux,"
       Gates said.

   Meanwhile, the grass roots grow deeper and wider on the subcontinent.
   Linux Bangalore, for example, is pushing its Linux Localization
   Initiative:
   http://lli.linux-bangalore.org--the kind of quiet and steady purpose
   that will cause countless Linux victories on fronts no publication
   covers.

   Actually, I doubt it's a battle either side will lose. It's a big
   country. There is an awful lot of work--a majority of it,
   probably--that can only be done on highly capable, flexible, reliable
   and cost-free platforms. That's a "threat" that Microsoft can't do a
   thing about, no matter how much money they throw at it.

   Doc Searls:
   mailto:doc at ssc.com is senior editor of Linux Journal.