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With the President of the Philippine's premiere university making this statement and doing it, it opens up the Philippine educational system in which schools all look up to this institution that trailblazes the way of education and technology. Many schools and universities, whose administrators are quitely mumbling against obscene MS licensing (it treats two big educational chains here as corporate clients , rather than education clients, and charges them exorbitant licensing fees), now will have to confidence to move their systems to Linux and open source. Other topnotch Philippine universities such as De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University are already turning our Linux proficient graduates. The combination of these three universities shall lead to more schools to adopt Linux and open source.

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I've read the article at the Philippine Collegian, and I must say that I commend Pres. Nemenzo on that announcement.

It's not only about the cost though - it's more about the freedom. Free software like Linux empowers the university to be free from being vassals of commercial interests and stand on their own.

Academic freedom and software freedom -- a good mix<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:-)

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The "Linux is for geeks" argument simply doesn't work anymore. Many Canadian universities are using Linux in their research departments. So, does Monopolo$oft really think that "geek" argument will run among a group of mathematicians, biochemists, engineers, genome database managers, and astrophysicists???? hehehehe<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... One of the reasons they do not like Winblows is not only is it NOT for geeks, but it is made for wInDIOTS.

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Chaos is not freedom

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This is by far not a complete list because it refers only to Orgs that use Debian, but check it out. It's quite impressive.

http://www.debian.org/users/

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The bottom line, though, is that UP simply can't afford 12 million Phillipines Pesos (about $223,300 US) to upgrade from MS Office 97 to Office 2000, and cannot afford to spend 8,000 Phillines Pesos (about $149) per computer to upgrade to the latest version of Windows.

Don't forget to add 25 million pesos or so for new hardware once it is discovered that Office 2000 + WinXP is sloooow on '97-'98 era hardware.

Remember:

1) New Windows OS needs
2) New Windows apps needs
3) New Hardware needs 1)

With Open Source you can tailor your apps to your hardware rather than upgrading everything.

-bertox

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That totally depends on the open source applications you are using. If you intend for a user to access Mozilla or Open Office on 5 year old hardware, you will almost certainly need to run them on a remote application host and then use your local system to handle mouse, keyboard, and other peripherals and to render the display.

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  The president of a University with statements like that, shows the scale of the Free Software Movement right now. The momentum of Linux's use and acceptance ensures a significant competition with ALL commercial OS vendors in the next 5-10 years. At this point, I hope the quality and stability of the Linux kernel is given a higher priority over features and adaptability to ensure its success.

Ghazan Haider

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the Philippine Commission on Higher Education would take notice of this and "enforce" this push into software liberty by mandating schools to teach Gnu/Linux. I used to be part of the educational system here in the Philippines. Sadly most colleges and universities here still offer Computer Science courses centered around Windows! Imagine, spending four years in college learning how to use microsoft office. Students are missing a chance to learn how a Real Operating system works.

In the school where I used to work, I was hard pressed trying to convince the CS faculty to switch or at least give the students a glimpse of other operating systems (not just Gnu/Linux). I tried to convince them to at least give Gnu/Linux a chance and teach the students (and themselves) how to install and use it. It was frustrating to hear one of them ask, "Is this Linux thing approved and recognised by the CHED?"

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...with a genuine desire for "software freedom"!

There is strong anti-american/anti-us themes in the philipines.

This "move to linux" is fueled largely in part by the desire to "stick it to billg/microsoft", aka "stick it to those f*cking american imperialists".

there is no doubt if there were a local philipines alternative software platform, even if it cost more money, they would choose that instead over microsoft and linux.

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At best,that is just conjecture. More probably it is FUD.

Linux certainly has its share of "American content". I think that, rather than "sticking it to BillyG", the Philippinos are just trying to avoid getting stuck themselves.

Certainly there are programmers in the Phillipines who can put together a competent Linux distro. There is no need for it to cost more and it can be as "home grown" as the Philippinos wish it to be. With the exception of the kernel, they can certainly strip out all the "American code" and substitute their own if they wish.

My guess is that the Phillipinos are telling the exact truth<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... that Windows costs too darned much and provides too darned little.

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Try to visit this site.

http://bayanihan.asti.dost.gov.ph/

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Unfortunately, the Philippines produces very poor low-level programmers. The best we can do are programmers who can make accounting software using Java, Visual Basic, and Visual C++. Even our most experienced programmers can't make any software worth recognizing as world-class open source software.

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Not really. The Philippines is extremely westernized compared to the other Asian nations. Something called "colonial mentality" exists in the Philippines. It means that they treasure foreign stuff more than local stuff because it's more expensive...

Next time check your info.

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Here in the Philippines, the Filipino term "libre" is used more closely to the Spanish term "gratis", meaning that it's free as in beer, so it could get confusing. There is the term, however, "malaya" that equates to free as in freedom.

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Check our linux, manila can selected when choosing a time zone during installation, and the behemeth MS still flexing muscle not to include even the word philippines in its timezone dialog box. no problem though since im using linux, sorry for all windows users

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From the first link...

"use OpenOffice or StarOffice for word processing, making powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets, data bases, etc., sending emails, and accessing the Internet."

Whoopsy. Seems that although Linux may become the dominant OS, it still has a way to go in the mindshare game.

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im just wondering why UP is cutting costs where in fact, they are not the paying for it anyways.. since most of its expenditures are coming from government funds, and also, with regards to office 97 to office 2k upgrades, my question is this?? have you fully utilized the features of office 97?? to the point that the features of office97 cannot fit to your needs?? the point is.. most people are driven by the hype of buying new software.. the flip side is.. have they ever utilized the feature of the old version. one more thing.. Is Mr. Nemenzo aware of the different licensing options offered by micrsoft to educational institutions?? another, do they know the the impact of their shift from microsoft office to staroffice impacts their students capacity to meet the demands of the corporate world. just imagine it would take quite some time for you to teach a medical student or accounting student to do a print merge in microsoft office, to the point that they go on memorizing every step, now imagine what would happen when what they are memorizing is no longer their because of a chance in office product out goes what u have learned.

          im not untie linux or pro-microsoft, im just a computer proffessional filled-up with all the OS wars and PR crap, for me.. computers are there to make our lives simpler its not there to make a political or PR statement.

          it's a matter of getting your job done!

Dennis Michael F. Ponseca
Unix/*BSD Administrator / I.T Consultant
Part time Computer Consultant.

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I Agree with Dennis. As a computer/engineer professional I thrive in both worlds. I do favor MS though because that is the OS that generates most of my income. I guess if you do not have that much income then you are stuck with Linux. Linux is not exclusively made for nerds, but I won't waste $200/hr of my time searching for plug-ins that is never assured to work! I remember a philosopher that says - cost will always reflect the need and wants of people looking for a better product. Free is not always good. My company, POGEE Technologies,Inc. -The Home of Afordable Solutions - produces products that is 90% non-Linux. It is very easy to make a judgement on theory and most academicians out there do not have the practical experience to based their opinions on.

Listen to the industry. Run your statistical analysis or what have you. What what the name of that Linux company that went bankrupt? Look at the CPU Industry, what is the standard of their design? XP-compatible, WINplexs CPUs, Windows here, Windows there? Oh yeah, I think their is one - MacOS.

But do not worry, I still service some accounts with a Linux machine and I do not charge them anything. They could not afford to pay me.

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Just give Linux a time and you'll see that time will come that most computers are running on Linux. As of this time, most people who are use to Windows are afraid to devote time to study or understand Linux. It just a matter of getting used to in Linux. If you tell yourself that you cant do it, then you get stuck in Windows. A person who is familiar with Linux can always work on a Windows Environment, but a person who loves Windows dearly will always find himself a stranger in Linux Environment.

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The problem with MS is that they are phasing out support for older products and push users to upgrade to its new licensing agreements. I think Mr. Nemenzo is also aware of the licensing options offered by MS to educational institutions. Big government agencies in the US are shifting to Linux. To think this agencies even have higher budget compared with UP. Once a user becomes familiar with Linux apps it wont be hard for him/her to shift to MS apps because they are almost the same and sometimes OSS apps are even better and more difficult.

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The main problem here is that, we are not funded by the government, and that the faculties and students are open minded on opensource

UP STUDENT

Try to study at UP and you shall see.

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This is what I think:

Yes, U.P. is not paying for the licensing fees of proprietary software among many other expenditures, being a government institution. Yes, the money comes from the government funds. However, if you care to read the article again, or if you have read the U.P. Forum article mentioned above, you'll stop wondering why: the Philippine government has been slashing U.P. budget (and the education budget as a whole) by the millions for several years now, so the U.P. President has no choice but to turn to open source and other cheaper alternatives.

Don't be misled into thinking that U.P. is gonna trash the previous versions of licensed software. That's a lot of Philippine pesos wasted if the university's gonna do that. Of course UP will still use them. But as more and more PCs are purchased over time, the Academic licenses will have run out and U.P. cannot afford to buy new licenses for these because of the budget cut.

The point is this: if a U.P. department or unit has extra money to buy more licensed software then fine. But if not, U.P. can't just shell out funds for these as their are many departments and campuses in U.P. clamoring for new licencses or new software purchases. Again, that's because of the tight budget allotted by the government.

Thus, new PCs will have to be installed with open source or cheaper software or licensed software will have to be transferred to these PCs and uninstalled from older machines. Also, machines needing software running only in Windows will be prioritized to use the meager Microsoft software licenses. But eventually, U.P. has to find alternative software that is either open source or running on the Linux environment.

Of course the U.P. President is aware of the licensing options of Microsoft as with the past U.P. Presidents, but still Academic license or not, the prices are still much too exorbitant. As I've mentioned earlier, U.P. has existing academic licenses of older versions of Microsoft software (and put into good use) but it's just limited, compared to the growing demand from faculty, student labs and university staff - about 10 campuses, and several thousands of constituents in all.

You see it's not just about the anti-PR or political statement. It's about practicality and still getting the job done, and maintaining work efficiency, especially when the budget is a major concern. Of course when your company's filthy rich you're not faced with such issues, although your company might be several thousands of dollars richer if you switch your system to linux.

The learning curve may be a little steep but heck, over time people will learn to adapt. Training and practice is all it takes. And as for U.P., these guys are from the university, they'll be able to adjust faster than others.<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:)

And lastly, the current Linux flavors are much easier to install and configure than say 5 years ago. It's almost like installing and configuring Windows, complete with GUI. It's not only for geeks anymore.

- d'Janitor

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hi to you

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