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I understand why you are cynical, but I've been part of the BOSS linux team couple of years ago and I would say it was money well spent.

To cite just one example - BOSS Linux was installed along side Windows (dual boot) in the free laptops given to students by the Tamil Nadu govt. This alone helped introduce thousands of students to linux.

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The one that I bought through Elcot -- in association with the TN Govt (in 2008) had OpenSUSE installed by default.

... helped introduce thousands of students to linux.

Why is that so good, and so worth lots of government money?

> Why is that so good..

It encourages tinkering which is especially important for students.

Also, many other general benefits that open-source brings. For example, open source code is more trustable than closed source.

Yeah but if GNULinux is free in the first place, why spend so much govt. money on it?

GNU/Linux is Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer. Much like printing presses and political campaigns still cost money, so does hardware and especially so does the time to mentor someone on how to use GNU/Linux.

For many organizations, Windows is actually monetarily cheaper than Linux, particularly organizations that need to deploy non-web GUI applications for users who are never going to be comfortable on a terminal.

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