The Hindu Business Line : There could be a bait in the black box

Those who have read Dr Kalam's works would have noticed how he argues for open source software in fields such as defence where we cannot afford to have something running inside that we don't know fully.

EVEN as all the PM's men are busy polishing up their speeches, the first citizen of the country has been pursuing an important interest. While many are aware of Dr Kalam's interactions with the younger generation, a lesser-known area of work he has been involved in is the promotion of `open source software', in the place of secretive Windows.

We are all familiar with the Microsoft Windows system that operates within the box. We at best know how to press the buttons and click the icons. What Bill Gates gives is an ask-no-questions software which operates like a black-box, meaning, you give the input and it will give you the output, and don't ask how.

Microsoft has been facing many lawsuits in different parts of the world and courts are not viewing kindly the secrecy that shrouds the products.

For instance, the European Union wants Microsoft to disclose more software code to competitors in the market for low-end servers so they can make products that work as well with Windows as Microsoft's own.

Okay, what is this open source thing? The opposite of `closed', naturally. Advocates of `open source' would explain that it involves not only access to the source code but also free redistribution, freedom to modify, and so forth. The idea is being studied by many countries.

Canada put three of its ministries on the job recently. The city of Munich, Germany, announced in mid-2003 that it would adopt the Linux OS and free applications for its 14,000 workstations.

And a remark around that time by Dr Kalam, that "in India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people," has got wide attention in international media because India is seen as "a highly active country in the software development field."

At the end of last month, it was the turn of Richard Stallman, "the leading light of the free and open source software (FOSS) movement", to meet the President, though at the end of the day, Microsoft too sought audience with Dr Kalam. More than the technology issue, there are political and social aspects to the debate.

According to him, it is unfortunate that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions because any small shift in the business practice involving these solutions can have devastating effect. Licensing costs could entail a huge outflow of forex too.

"The President of India added to a growing foreign-relations headache for Microsoft with a speech in which he advocated broader adoption of open-source software," noted CNET News.com, reporting Dr Kalam's speech in Pune a few months ago.

"Kalam recounted a conversation earlier this year with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: `We were discussing the future challenges in information technology, including the issues related to software security... I made a point that we look for open-source codes so that we can easily introduce the user-built security algorithms. Our discussions became difficult, since our views were different'."

When open source can run on Mars, why not here? However, Gates is making smart moves. As if to pre-empt the Indian Government from making a formal decision to adopt open-source software, Microsoft wants to do charity - assisting in training about 80,000 school teachers and 3.5 million students in government-run schools in India.

But Stallman does not see this as an act of generosity. "Giving Microsoft software to school children is like giving them cigarettes - it is a way to get them hooked, so that once they grow up, they will be a captive market for Microsoft."

Should we look a gift horse in the mouth?

E&OE@thehindu.co.in

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