Microsoft is revving up its marketing machine to ensure that its products are firmly entrenched in India, even as the open source movement is gaining ground and GNU/Linux is making inroads into corporate and government installations. The leaders of the opposing camps were both in India simultaneously last month—one with dollars and the other with doctrine. Dissecting the visits, FREDERICK NORONHA feels that a battle is in the offing on Indian soil, as he explores the alternative roads ahead for computing in the country

IT HAPPENED LIKE that rare celestial line-up of heavenly bodies, bringing in its wake meteoric pyrotechnics and disturbing the natural equilibrium. So when Free Software Foundation head Richard M Stallman’s visit to India coincided with that of Microsoft chief Bill Gates in mid-November, some level of fireworks was only to be expected.
While the idealism being preached by Stallman and others in the free/libre and open source software world is beginning to make its impact, Stallman’s volunteer-supported, low-profile visit went largely unnoticed by the mainstream media, which was too busy falling over itself in its eagerness to report on every movement and utterance of the world’s richest man as he doled out his dollars across the country. Not unexpectedly, Gates hogged the headlines with the millions he pledged towards the battle against AIDS in India.

Bill Gates feels that Linux gains have been at the cost of Unix rather than Windows

Behind the sidelines, however, a fascinating debate was underway. It came up mainly on the Internet, via mailing lists, and from those who disagree strongly with the proprietary software path charted out by Gates and Microsoft.

Whichever side of the debate one takes, there is no doubt that the coming months are going to see a battle between the two appro-aches, which will be fought out on Indian soil. There is definitely going to be a huge impact on how India computerises, how many among the hundreds of millions will get access to computing, and will also make clear which is the best way forward.

Obviously this has strong implications for the future of India’s software industry. For a country that sees itself as a software superpower in the making, the question of which path to choose throws up a dilemma.

Gates downplayed the challenge he is facing from GNU/Linux. But one thing seems clear—the Microsoft emphasis on education and localisation is aimed at taking the battle to fields where GNU/Linux campaigners have been working, and also spurring on appreciable interest.

Handouts
While in India, the Microsoft Corporation chairman announced a whole list of handouts. These included $20 million to develop India’s Shiksha edtech training programme (which has an ambitious target of training over 80,000 teachers and 3.5 million students over several years); $1 million to the Media Lab Asia project; a $25 million five-year grant for a children’s vaccine programme against Hepatitis B in Andhra Pradesh; and, $100 million to battle AIDS in India.

In interactions with journalists, the question came up of whether the visiting “IT czar”—as Bill Gates was sometimes described—had his philanthropic activities connected to operations of his company Microsoft. He denied this, arguing that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on whose behalf he pledged the donations, is “completely independent” from his company.

In New Delhi, however, the Microsoft chief also unveiled Microsoft’s plans to invest $400 million in India on education, software localisation and development. The $400 million will be invested by Microsoft over the next three years, Gates announced at a function where he launched the Tablet PC, and detailed Microsoft’s India plans.

Contending that it was very important to localise software in India, Gates announced plans to market Windows XP and the next version of Office—dubbed “Office 11”— in Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam and extend it to nine more Indian languages in 2003. Work on this is underway at Microsoft’s development centre in Hyderabad.

Taking on GNU/Linux
But that Gates’ approach was clearly linked to the growing GNU/Linux campaigns in India was more than clear. Rajesh Mahapatra, writing for the US-headquartered Associated Press, commented: “Hoping to stave off a rise in the popularity of free, open-source software, Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates has announced a $400-million investment in India. The three-year initiative—part philanthropy, part business boost— seeks to entrench products of the world’s dominant software company in schools and among India’s multitude of talented programmers.”

Speaking during his India trip, Gates sought to underplay increasing interest in favour of GNU/Linux in India. He argued that Microsoft’s Windows remains far ahead of its competition and that the Linux gains were at Unix’s cost rather than Windows’.

“But Indian software companies are increasingly opting for Linux. Users say they prefer the open-source system because its basic code is non-proprietary, can be freely modified and makes better sense for the developing world than Windows,” reported the Associated Press.

Incidentally, blunting criticism about proprietary software over-charging the Third World and developing countries, Gates has argued that Microsoft prices are adjusted to be “appropriate to different segments.”

Microsoft—having perhaps realised the importance of catching students young, after a number of GNU/Linux school projects were reported in Indian locations like Goa, Delhi and Kerala—now talks about charging “less” or “nothing” for software used in education.

One educationist from an engineering college in India confided to this writer that moves were afoot to push Windows harder in education. He commented, on condition of anonymity: “We are in the process of acquiring an MSDN Academic Alliance, available for educational institutes only. It costs around $799 per year, and gives full access to the Microsoft operating system and programs for the entire institute—an unlimited number of copies. It is useful for students (as the course curriculum covers Microsoft tools) and for the industry too at present. The career-minded would persist with Microsoft. We prefer the MSDN AA programme, as obtaining the relevant OS+ package upgrades once in 2-3 years would cost much more than keeping the subscription alive.”

Windows has in the past come in for criticism over its prices here, considered unaffordable by Third World standards.

Angry retort
The Free Software Foundation of India retorted angrily to the situation. Said FSF-India: “We regard non-free proprietary software as a problem to be solved, not as a solution to any problem.” This organisation is based in Kerala but organises its activities in several states of the country.

FSF-India is a non-profit organisation committed to “advocating, promoting and propagating the use and development of ‘swatantra software in India.’ Their goal, they say, is to ensure the long-term adoption of free software.”

In a publicly-released letter dated November 14, FSF-India argued that the proposed Microsoft investments “have no motive other than the motive of profit” and nobody should have the “illusion that these investments” are being made for the betterment of society or the development of India.

Non-free software—supplied without its underlying source code, and the freedom to study, modify and redistribute it—was constraining indigenous development and dividing society, it argued.

Plans to donate money to the ‘Project Shiksha’, that is to teach some 3.5 million children, is “tied to the condition that the project will purchase only licensed Microsoftware,” said the FSF-India.

Contrary to claims that Microsoft had “low pricing”, the FSF-India argued that it was not a question of the “initial software cost”, but rather that “Microsoft would benefit tremendously from such a project even if it were to supply its software free of cost as long as it is Microsoft software.”

“That is because children and teachers would learn to use only Microsoft software, allowing the company to maintain it’s monopolistic stranglehold in education and beyond,” argued the FSF-India. “This is akin to an MBBS (medical education) course teaching potential doctors how to use medicines manufactured only by one particular pharmaceutical company!”

Besides, by “denying” its users the freedom to study, modify and redistribute the software, students and teachers of Project Shiksha would not have the option of “looking under the hood” to see how the software works, FSF-India contended.

Said FSF-India: “If they find problems with the software or if they wish to customise it, they will not have the means or the right to make such corrections or modifications, either by themselves or by engaging a third party.

They will have to depend solely on Microsoft to provide such corrections or modifications. They will be denied the right to share the software with others outside the purview of the project premises, leading young and impressionable minds to believe that sharing is wrong.”

Other trends
But even while Gates was in India, there were other trends discernible in the air. Reports from Kolkata suggested that the West Bengal government is considering using free/libre and open source operating systems (OS) like GNU/Linux as an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows OS in its school computer literacy programme. It is reported to have approached IBM to provide system support.

In Kerala, Arun M <arun@freedevelopers.net> and Dr Krishnan are currently involved in writing a GNU/Linux book for ninth standard school students. If they’re to undertake a project for eighth standard students, they need help. Volunteers are always welcome.

Richard Stallman wants users to have the freedom to study, modify and redistribute all software

So what’s GNU?
Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU Project, launched in 1984 to develop the free operating system GNU (an acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix’’). He thereby gave computer users the freedom that most of them have lost, in the view of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) advocates.

GNU is free software: Everyone is free to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small. Stallman has also founded the related Free Software Foun-dation (FSF) and is outspoken about his belief that all software should be free (not in a price sense, but in a ‘freedom’ sense). In his view, proprietary software, for which the developing company charges a fee but doesn’t release an adjustable source-code, is wrong from a “moral or ethical standpoint”.

From a US developer’s point of view—the world-view in which this debate originated—the freedom that GNU/Linux gives is not related to price. But the fact that it is easily copyable means FLOSS would naturally tend to come at much more affordable prices. In price-sensitive markets like India, this could be critical. Especially in the face of stepped-up so-called anti-piracy drives.

Some argue that the fact that India is home to so many developers—up to 10 percent of the world’s total, according to one hard-to-verify estimate—makes this region critical to Microsoft. This despite the fact that Microsoft earns little revenue from around here currently.

In mid-November 2002, during their visits, both RMS—the log-in name comprising Stallman’s initials, by which he is widely known among his fans—and Bill Gates were on Indian TV shows within literally minutes of each other. Stallman was in an interview on CNBC’s Digital Revolution programme and Gates came up on STAR TV’s night news. It was a strange juxtaposition.

Gates talked about AIDS, his philanthropy, and why India should “not remake” software products that already exist but instead go into new ones. (This was in reply to a question on why we don’t see Indian global products like Windows or Word.) He also argued why Indian skills would perhaps continue to remain in the “consulting and services” market rather than in products.

RMS was on the other hand explaining the concepts of freedom in software, and how the movement the
Free Software Foundation initiated is incorrectly thought by many users to be simply “Linux”. He argued on why attempts to merely use the Free/Libre and Open Source Software threat to get Microsoft to lower its prices is simply missing the point. Stallman was also deft in handling questions over what makes the Open Source movement different from the Free Software one, and the question of whether this OS should be more appropriately called Linux or GNU/Linux.

He stressed that schools are a good place in which to start using free software. Later, through his public statements, Bill Gates echoed this view, but from a Microsoft-products perspective.

World’s eyes on India
For a change, it looked as if the world was looking at India, both due to the coinciding of the Gates and Stallman visits as well as the fireworks resulting from the clash of the two approaches.

Khaled Alghoneim of the Saudi Arabia GNU/Linux group put it this way: “After India announced its intentions to partly switch to [GNU/]Linux, Bill Gates is flying there for four days! We have tried hard here in SA to invite him (two letters from our leadership!), and they say that his schedule is booked for three years. I think we need to announce something like the Indians (and of course, have their advanced software industry) in order to attract attention.”

Said Dr Jose Colaco, a South Asian settled in the distant Bahamas, who was equally cynical, while commenting on a mailing-list: “Interesting how Linux helped Gates to think of AIDS in India... what about donating some money to Clinton’s Africa-AIDS drive?”

Abdul Rahman Aljadhai, also from Saudi Arabia, argued that the situation was indeed strange. Said Aljadhai, “Bill Gates thinks that Linux is more dangerous than AIDS? He is donating $421 million to fight Linux (to prop up Windows in India) and only $100 million to fight AIDS.”

Frederick Noronha can be contacted at fred@bytesforall.org