NY Times: Bill Gates to Tour India Amid Global Software Debate

[ Thanks to TunaMelt for this
link. ]

“This country has an estimated half-million individual software
developers, many of them writing programs for some of the world’s
largest corporations. Mr. Gates’s visit, his third to India, comes
as programmers around the world are being lured to join the
so-called open-source computing movement, which favors the Linux
operating system–available free or in low-cost software
packages–over proprietary systems like Microsoft Windows…

“Mr. Gates is scheduled to visit New Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay
and Hyderabad. If previous visits are indicative, his trip will
attract a fawning group of state chief ministers and federal
political leaders lining up outside his hotel suites, waiting for a
chance to meet with the world’s richest man.

“Recent actions by the government, however, have been less than
adulatory. Just weeks before Mr. Gates’s impending arrival,
officials in India’s Department of Information Technology in New
Delhi leaked details of an effort called the Linux India
Initiative. It is meant to promote Linux as a viable alternative to
proprietary-based software for use in government departments, state
governments and corporations…”

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