ELCOT STUDENT LAPTOP SCHEME

ELCOT'S STUDENT LAPTOP SCHEME 2008

ELCOT is a fully owned company of Government of Tamil Nadu. One of the primary roles of ELCOT is to bring down Digital Divide in Tamil Nadu. In its role as IT Product Procurement Agency for the Government, ELCOT has managed to bring down the prices of IT products with the help of volume purchases coupled with transparency in procurement and timely payment. Currently, ELCOT holds the record of procuring Computers at the lowest price in the world. Similarly, ELCOT has also been procuring commercial grade Laptop Computers at highly discounted prices. These Laptop Computers are guaranteed to perform for a minimum of three year period. During three year period any component failure is replaced except the battery. ELCOT procures such Laptop Computers only after carrying out a series of tests. The notable tests are fire walk and Linux compatibility tests. The fire walk test is a special test carried out by ELCOT to ascertain the ruggedness of the Laptop. In this case, the Laptop Computers are placed on a hard floor and persons weighing 80 kgs and above are made to walk on the Laptop Computers. Only those Laptop Computers which clear this test without any damage are allowed to participate in the price bid. Similarly, ELCOT carries out extensive Linux compatibility test with Redhat and Suse Linux. Unless the Laptop Computer works fully under these two Linux distribution environments, they are not allowed to reach the price bid stage. Hence, the Laptop Computers that are being procured by ELCOT are rugged and are compatible for multiple operating systems, notably the most popular and stable Operating System - Linux.

ELCOT has been implementing Linux Operating System in all its operations during the past two years and found it to be absolutely stable and reliable. Currently, ELCOT supplies all its hardware under Linux platform only. ELCOT encourages its buyers to procure the Laptop Computers only with the pre-loaded Linux Operating System. However, ELCOT also realises the need of the student community to test other operating systems. Hence, ELCOT pre-loads all the Desktop and Laptop computers with a virtualisation software called "Virtual Box". Virtual box software provides an exciting opportunity to install multiple operating systems within Linux. There is no need to reboot the system to either install a new operating sytem or work with multiple operating systems at the same time.

The current Student Laptop Project is aimed at providing 100,000 Laptop Computers to the students studying in Colleges and Schools in Tamil Nadu. Educational institutions, including Deemed Universities can also avail this facility. ELCOT has identified one multinational brand Laptop manufacturer through open tender floated for this project. These laptop computers come with three year comprehensive international warranty (except Battery). Hence, the students who travel abroad after completing their studies will have no difficulty in getting warranty services wherever they go.

Preloaded licensed operating system:

The Student laptops come with state of the art Suse Linux Enterprise Edition 10.1 operating system preloaded. This operating System has been tested to host multiple operating systems without reboot using a free virtualisation software called 'virtual box'. The student laptop has been tested for various parameters, starting from dual display to other parameters such as compatibility for various printers and peripherals. Unlike Microsoft Windows, the user need not look for driver CD in the case of Linux as all these drivers are pre-installed in the operating system. The burden of the user is completely relieved. On its part, ELCOT tests each and every peripheral for Linux compatibility. All these special drivers are preloaded in the system. ELCOT adopts a lengthy procedure before releasing the first master laptop image for creating multiple copies. As this laptop had already undergone the full tests through a marathon 5 week process, the time factor associated with the rolling out of the first image has already been taken care of.

Microsoft's offer and the current stage of negotiations:

ELCOT had asked Microsoft to supply its operating system for Rs.500 ($12). But Microsoft offered a bundled version of its operating system, office suite and anti virus software for Rs.2500 ($57). This is not acceptable for ELCOT as this was an academic edition. ELCOT does not accept the marketing concept called 'academic edition'. There can be only one price for ELCOT to market a product. Academic edition concept goes against this principle. Again, Microsoft has bundled its offer. ELCOT believes in openness. Any such bundling could result in serious exploitation of the consumer. This could be considered an anti-consumer move. ELCOT cannot support an anti consumer move. Hence ELCOT asked Microsoft to debundle its offer.

Microsoft India is yet to provide the revised offer (Rs.500 for its operating system and debundling its current offer to fix the price of its office suite and anti virus software). Once we receive Microsoft's revised offer which is acceptable to ELCOT, we would get back to you with our offer for Microsoft products.

ELCOT recommends ONLY Suse Linux and Ubuntu Operating Systems:

ELCOT has been using Suse Linux and Ubuntu Linux operating systems on its desktop and laptop computers numbering over 2000 during the past two years and found them far superior as compared to other operating systems, notably the Microsoft Operating System. None of ELCOT's systems has been down for servicing due to OS fault or virus fault in the last 2 years, thanks to the Linux operating system. ELCOT has not deployed any anti virus software in its systems as Linux OS cannot be infected by computer viruses.

We have configured the student laptop computers with a bundle of software packages, making it a valuable prize for the student community. Java/JSP/J2EE/C++ etc software development can be commenced without any additional configuration. It also comes with Mozilla Thunderbird mail client (MD, ELCOT uses Mozilla Thunderbird mail client only).

Virtual Box - a virtual hardware platform within Linux

Virtual Box software is pre loaded in ELCOT's Student Laptops. (Thanks to Sun Micro system for offering this beautiful software free of cost)

Those who wish to have the experience of Microsoft Windows Operating system can install the Microsoft OS through the Virtual Box software. It is a three step simple procedure. ELCOT has preloaded a video tutorial on how to use the Virtual Box software to help the young student users. ELCOT provides free unlimited support for the Virtual Box Software. The free support can be had through e-mail or in person. All the Branches of ELCOT have been provided with Linux Certified professionals and hence they would provide the necessary support for not only using Virtual Box software but any other Linux issues as well.

Virtual Box opens up a new area of research and development whereby the students can test/evaluate multiple operating systems within one box. After the test is over, they can delete the unwanted/unnecessary operating systems simply by pressing the Delete button. Re installation of Operating System within the virtual box can be done at any time later.

ELCOT had found out that there is absolutely no performance degradation while using the new (subordinate) operating system from within Linux. Just by pressing Right Control Button + F key, the user is able to maximize the window of the new operating system installed within Virtual Box. By clicking at the same keys, the new operating system can be minimized or the window resized and the user can go back to Linux window and work with Linux OS. So, the new operating system installed using Virtual Box software is just a window within Linux operating system. It can be minimized/maximized and can be shut down without shutting down the Linux OS! The users can install and work with multiple operating systems at the same time, say Windows XP, Windows Vista, other Linux distros, Win-95/98/ME/ etc within the same Virtual box. Virtual Box is indeed a magic box! It is an exciting experience working with Virtual Box software and we chose to give this excitement to the student community in Tamil Nadu.

The users can happily enjoy the stability and safety of the Linux operating system if new operating systems are installed within Linux using Virtual Box software. As Linux is free from viruses, the new operating systems installed within Virtual Box software can enjoy certain advantages as viruses are fire walled by the Linux OS. But ELCOT cannot guarantee for the safety of the Microsoft Operating system installed within Virtual Box as computer viruses could still attack Microsoft OS.

To sum it up:

ELCOT recommends ONLY Linux operating system for the Student Laptops.you tube video on ORCA) Currently ELCOT's student laptops come preloaded with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.1 with one year subscription. For visually challenged students ELCOT would load Ubuntu Linux OS with ORCA accessibility software, a speech software that enables visually challenged persons to install operating system, software and administer servers and desktops without sighted people assistance. (Watch

Do you need more than one year subscription service?

Linux operating system does not need subscription services for upgrades or security patches. Linux OS does not attract viruses nor does it have security holes. So, the concept of annual subscription is alien to Linux, especially for the home users and desktop users. For corporate, annual subscription may be helpful as they are accustomed to such subscription services and they feel at loss without one.

Annual Subscription for ELCOT's Systems?

ELCOT has not entered into any annual subscription agreement for linux OS support. In the last two years, the need for support had come down to less than 0.5% as compared to the erstwhile Microsoft OS environment. So, no case had been made out for such subscription services. (ELCOT migrated to Linux OS successfully all its operations two years ago). On special requests, ELCOT may install more Linux distros on these laptops.

Price:
ELCOT expected a price of Rs.21-24000 for two types of configuration. Unfortunately, there is a dollar appreciation, from Rs.39 a dollar to Rs.44 now. There has been a general price hike due to the oil price hike. As a result, the manufacturers could not bring down the price to ELCOT's expected level. After protracted negotiations, ELCOT managed to get minor discounts. By altering the configuration, ELCOT has provided two choices to the end users, a fully loaded configuration and a slightly lower configuration.

We are unable to look at unbranded laptops as we are not sure about their performance. ELCOT, as a fully owned company of Government of Tamil Nadu cannot be a party to supply of poor quality products.

In the above circumstances we appeal to the student community to bear with the current price. We promise that we would come back with better offers in the years to come. Our aim is to bring down the cost of a fully loaded COMMERCIAL grade laptop to less than Rs.20,000, thus enabling the corporate and the Government alike to migrate to laptops from desktops thus saving electricity cost/consumption by 60-70%