The most literate state in India adopts GNU/Linux for all schools

I remember reading an article on Coca-Cola in India over 20 years ago. The problem was that they use the same illegal tactics which they've used everywhere else in the world (including the USA - look up "RC Cola vs Coca-Cola" if you wish). This nearly bankrupted other beverage companies, so some action was taken. Good for them. I have seen Coca-Cola bankrupt quite a few large corporations elsewhere (including RC). Even PepsiCo almost didn't survive. Coke just doesn't like competition.

I would disagree -- everything is politics. Certainly everything which has an economic component.

The low bidder did win: GNU/Linux! :-)

But here's where I differ. School "needs" are defined by the school. In Kerala, India the schools are funded by the state through a democratic process.

That process decided their top priority educational "need" was software that was open and allowed students to learn the internals of the software -- what a concept for education!

By going with GNU/Linux the state filled that need, retained local Indian control, saves money, and it may work to kickstart a local software industry.

This is simply good government at work providing for the people in general and students in particular!

Microsoft has -- they've repeatedly been convicted of violating US anti-trust laws.

Microsoft routinely "gives away" software to lock new customers into the "Microsoft way". Sometimes they'll even give schools the hardware too -- the lock in, especially in terms of training students, is rock-solid and the software company comes out way ahead. Microsoft learned this trick from Apple, which pioneered educational lock-in during the 80s.

I once quit a job as a tenure track computer science professor over this issue. I was hired to head up the networking program and used a broad approach teaching general networking and specifically Windows, Unix, and Novell OS. But the college accepted a "grant" of "free software" from Microsoft which locked the college into teaching the MCSE program. With our staff and student ratio, this mandated dropping the Unix and Novell portions of our curriculum -- something just had to go. And so it went (and so did I:-).

This type of ruthless lock-in happens all the time. Students are not a high priority -- they don't know history and have little experience so they'll believe almost any line which justifies the decisions made solely on the basis of the vendor lock-in.

(And the monopoly angle gets worse. Bought an X-box lately? Used MSN? Those are two examples of Microsoft's monopoly. Both of those Microsoft units operate at a loss year after year. Everything Microsoft does loses money with the exception of its Windows and MS Office products.)