The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) will conduct ‘Free Software Install Fests’ on October 2 as part of Software Freedom Day celebrations.
The latest version of IT@School GNU/Linux will be installed free of cost in computers at the festival.
A press note here on Thursday said the IT@School GNU/Linux-based Operating System featured various applications worth over ₹1.5 lakh, including operating system, Office packages (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Database..), DTP, Graphics and Imaging software, sound recording, video editing, animation packages, and Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) for programming, Web Server & Database server, Geographical Information System (GIS), etc.
This also contains major educational software such as Geogebra, Phet, Stellarium , Kalzium, Marble, Razmol, Gplates, Gcomprise, Pysio Game, Dr Geo, and Celestia.
Seminars
The festival is being organised at the district offices of KITE. It would also see sessions on Free Software by experts, Q&A sessions, and seminars. Students of the Hi-School Kuttikoottam group from selected schools would be given specific training during the event.
Software Freedom Day aims at creating public awareness of the benefits and scope of using quality Free Software applications in all domains of life.
The State government had already issued guidelines insisting on the use of only Free and open-source software (FOSS) applications at schools and government offices.
“IT@School (KITE) would not be able to come up with such extensive ICT education programme if the proprietary software was in place and as a social responsibility, we are taking up this big task from Gandhi Jayanti Day. As a continuing process, we would be conducting similar programmes in each of the 163 education sub-districts in the State and then at each school,” said K. Anvar Sadath, vice chairman and executive director, KITE.
Those who like to participate in the festival have to register at the “Install Fest Registration” link available on www.kite.kerala.gov.in before September 26, the press note added.