For a moment, consider the scale of education in India. Then, read this article:
The Director of Public Instruction (DPI) has issued orders making free software compulsory. It says Linux Operating System should be used for IT education in eighth, ninth and tenth standards.
This is huge for a huge country making a huge investment in IT. Big stuff.
I offer a question for discussion: When free software becomes mandatory, is it still what GNU founder Richard Stallman would term “free as in freedom?”
This concern is genuin. But I guess, by making linux compulsory the government is making a coscious effort to enable the students (read the future generation) less dependant upon monopolistic regimes like the Red Giant. Because if linux is about something, it is free thinking. Once the people get the best of both the worlds, then they will really be able to decide for themselves what is best, or what is best for any geven task.