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Thursday, March 09, 2006
Hortaleza: Open source better for those school PCs
By Behn Fer. Hortaleza
BY JUNE, this year, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) hopes to deploy more computers (actually the third batch of its kind) -- that is, 1,200 schools throughout the Philippines.
The DTI guys, a report in the Inquirer said, are now evaluating the "post qualifying" bids for the PCs for Public Schools Project probably to see not just what's "more advantageous to government" in terms of price but also practical considerations. Mainly, the DTI is trying to make up its mind on whether to use open source, Microsoft or Mac for operating systems of the PCs.
Off the bat, many would go for Microsoft. Reason's simple: it's more popular and as some techno geeks say, easily adapts to users' common requirements. But if those DTI characters and Department of Education (DepEd) figures know what's good for their budgets, which, in any case, is not a bulging, fat one, they might want to go open source.
"Open source", as Techno Pinoy points out, "is free" and the funds thus saved can go to the purchase of more PCs for the schools. That, we say, makes real sense.
Hear Techno Pinoy argue: "Just giving students access to the Internet is already a big step, and to achieve this, students simply need a stable OS like Linux/Ubuntu and an open source browser like Firefox. Moreover, because there are fewer games in Linux platforms, students can be more productive instead of wasting time playing hack-and-slash games."
Get the point, DTI, DepEd?
"And if they need an office suite, there is also Open Office which has a similar look-and-fell as that of Microsoft Office," Techno adds.
Any violent arguments on that?
I believe in a government that makes more sense than makes money. Mine's just one voice though - two, if I may add Techno's - to make it matter to the bids and awards committees of the DTI.
(March 9, 2006 issue)
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