[Wikimediaindia-l] OT FOSS assist WAS Re: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects

[Vickram Crishna]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <
parakara.ghoda at gmail.com> wrote:

> Vickram, your tone makes it look like everything is our fault.
> We cannot switch over to Firefox/Linux for one simple reason.
> Most students here are from a Rural background and won't be able to
> adjust to new stuff. They had a tough time adjusting from Windows 7 to
> XP when the rollback was done due to issues with Turbo C++ and
> Microsoft COBOL compiler.
>

There's no question of fault, and no need to take it that way. Every
journey needs that first step. However, your doubts have been addressed in
many different scenarios before, and really comes across more as FUD than
likely reality. You will probably be surprised. Having said which, it is
entirely possible that there are no FOSS service agencies in your area, who
could walk you (ie the college, details depending on how the upgrade is
mutually planned) through it. If you can describe where the college is,
perhaps the right persons can get in touch, and if this does not work out,
then you have the status quo in any case.

As a bonus, most machines that today run XP were designed a while back, and
it is very possible that the switch will come with tangible efficiency
benefits.


>
> --~~~~
>
> On 12/13/11, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni at mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> > 2011/12/14 Vickram Crishna <vvcrishna at radiophony.com>:
> >> Pardon my intrusion on this thread, but within reason*, if any college
> or
> >> other educational institution chooses to be 'proprietary only' (never
> mind
> >> antediluvian - IE6? really? or is that an XP issue?) FOSSers are
> prepared
> >> to
> >> take it up 'officially' with them, reminding them of the nation's
> >> commitment
> >> to education without strings attached. This is fyi to listers, and I
> >> shan't
> >> mention it again, but please do consider notifying your friendly
> >> neighbourhood FOSSer with details of the person to contact
> >> (principal/director etc) for assistance and action. This in turn will
> get
> >> reflected to a FOSS forum (fosscomm is one such) and will hopefully
> result
> >> in notifying the institution concerned as well as the possibility of a
> >> local
> >> FOSS-based firm offering upgrade services.
> >>
> >> *ie FOSS as a movement is in continuous need of resources as well, but
> >> education is a major priority
> >
> > It is a very valid point. Installing Firefox or at least updating to
> > IE8 on Windows XP costs nothing and has very tangible and
> > easy-to-demonstrate benefits for language support. Wiki Community
> > members should BE BOLD and tell libraries, schools and colleges that
> > they should do it.
> >
> > While you are at it, make sure that auto-updates are enabled and
> > consider installing a version of Firefox with menus translated to the
> > local language (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html ; if
> > you can't find it your language, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n .)
> >
> > --
> > Amir E. Aharoni
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
> Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
>
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-- 
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
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