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Goa yet to okay IBM open source offer

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DQW Bureau
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It’s the open source versus proprietary software duel again. But for the
time being, Microsoft seems to have moved the cheese that IBM was aiming for.
While IBM has submitted a comprehensive proposal to participate in the Goa
government’s Cyberage Student Scheme, the state government has decided to go
ahead with Microsoft products for the PCs that it plans to distribute under this
scheme.

IBM had offered a number of services and facilities in Open Source including
setting up of first of its kind Linux compe-tency lab in Goa. Though IBM sources
expressed confidence of going ahead with their plans of setting up a Linux help
desk in the state with or without state government’s support, the state
government is yet to take any decision on its proposals.

Talking about the initiative, Satish Kaushal, Country Mana-ger (Government),IBM
said that the company sees this initiative as a key step in supporting Goa
government’s initiatives in ado-pting open standards and Linux based
applications as its appli-cation development environ-ment. "IBM is also
committed to involve our local partners in Goa to run and manage this center on
regular basis," he added.

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According to Kaushal, the company has also offered to set up a Linux help
desk with world class support infrastru-cture in Goa to install hard-ware,
software and support tools for tracking every call related to products supplied
by IBM and RedHat that is esc-alated to this center. Company sources also
suggest that IBM has also offered to provide access to its Linux Compe-tency
Labs in Bangalore once the state government accepts its proposal. Besides, the
com-pany also proposes to start a ‘Train the Trainer Program’ and setting up
a student education portal-an online Cyberage Project Monitoring System.

And with the state govern-ment already signing a deal with Microsoft to
install Windows, MS Office, Mac-Afee virus scan and MS Visual Studio for Rs
3,600 per PC, the IBM proposal seems to be in doldrums.

Niraj Naik

Goa (CyberMedia News Service)

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