In the largest such simultaneous deployment of ‘free-and-open’ software in India, over 15 lakh Kerala school children on September 7th started taking their quarterly practical tests in Information Technology on personal computers using a special Linux version.  Sasi Kumar writes a brief history of the intrepid free software movement in Kerala.

“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free ice cream”.

In 2005, the government announced that the schools in Kerala will completely switch to Free Software in stages. Supplements to the textbooks were created to enable students to study using GNU/Linux, which also introduced some software that a child new to computers could use to learn the skills needed to use a mouse and a keyboard.