the idea is to give students an insight into OSS/alternatives. almost all the cases i know haf refused to voluntarily get into OSS and use alternatives. their simple reasoning is this: arey yaar, why shud i spend time knowing about another OS when windows is there. i'll just make a copy of the installation CD from my fren!
if students are made to learn about OSS/alternatives from their school dayz then they won't give the kinda reply mentioned above when they become old enuff to choose.
take the case of my engineering colg. i'm from the electronics branch. 2 of us (the other being from the comp. science branch) organised a workshop on OSS/Linux/alternatives... their capabilities, their usage in the real world, market share, how they are different, the features, customisation.... everthing. the next day was a workshop on installing and configuring a basic linux system. free ubuntu CDs were to be distributed. my class has 65 ppl. guess how many turned up? 4!!! yes, thats rite.. FOUR! unless ppl are made to do things, they won't voluntarily do anything... they'd rather go to the sutta (cigarette) corner, spend time there than attending the workshop and then goto their frenz place and pirate windows. this is the sad reality!
