[Ecommerce] University of Philippines President calls for switch to Linux

[James Love]

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/03/01/21/2043259.shtml?tid=23

University of Philippines President Boosts Linux
Wednesday January 22, 2003 - [ 08:39 AM GMT ]

- By Robin 'Roblimo' Miller -
In a letter to University of the Philippines (UP) faculty and students 
posted on the UP Forum Online Web site last December, the university's 
president, Dr. Francisco Nemenzo, called for an institution-wide move 
from Windows to Linux. The final paragraph of his letter said, "Let us 
all join the Linux revolutionary movement. Good-bye, Bill Gates."

President Nemenzo's reasons for advocating the switch are simple: a 
major budget crunch has collided with high licensing costs for legal 
copies of Microsoft and other proprietary software, plus a constant call 
for expensive upgrades. In addition, there is a strong risk of 
substantial fines if members of the UP community are caught using 
unlicensed copies of proprietary software.

An article published in the Jan 16, 2003 edition of the weekly 
Phillipine Collegian student newspaper (not available online) says, "all 
the College of Engineering laboratories and the College of Social 
Sciences and Philosophy computer lab have converted to Linux," and 
mentions other departments that are also in the process of converting 
entirely to Linux.

The article didn't focus only on Linux's financial benefits to a 
cash-strapped university, but also quotes Professor Rommel Feria, 
director of the UP Computer Center, as saying, "Linux has the look and 
feel of Windows, but with a bonus: Linux is more reliable and stable 
than the latter."

In the article, standard complaints about Linux were mentioned. Author 
K. Luiz Alave wrote, "Critics of Linux... maintain that the system is 
too complex, too geeky for the average user who does not have the time 
and resources to customize their programs. But Linux advocates have a 
rebuttal: that's what they used to say about the internet and look what 
happened now."

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.

These upgrade cost figures are from President Nemenzo's December letter 
to students and faculty, which we have not reproduced in full here 
because, in an email sent January 20, 2003, he told us he'd rather we 
didn't post the full text of his UP Forum Online letter on NewsForge.

"Although I am a strong supporter of Linux," he wrote, "I do not think 
it is wise for me to drag UP into the war with Microsoft. Persuading the 
UP community to shift is the most I can do, but I presume that is 
already big enough."

Thank you, Raffy Simbol, for the story tip!
-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technlogy
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040