Linux Online - Kerala kickstarts Linux usage with 100-plus help centres

Kerala kickstarts Linux usage with 100-plus help centres


Publication:	The Hindu	Date:	Oct 26 2004
Reporter:	Anand Parthasarathy

Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it — ran American humorist Mark Twain's quip about the weather. It can just as well be applied to the dozens of well-meaning but impractical initiatives attempting to help lay computer users in India migrate from proprietary systems to the free-and-open environment of Linux — if they so choose.

LiTE centres

Now, appropriately enough, from the 100 per cent literacy State comes a down-to-earth initiative that may yet prove Mark Twain — and nay-sayers of open software — wrong: A low key ceremony in the office of the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, on Wednesday, saw the launch of a programme anchored by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), where 107 computer training institutes spread across all 14 districts of Kerala have been beefed up as `Linux Technology Extension (LiTE) centres.'