[BangPypers] [OT] Microsoft Office 365 for Education made mandatory for approved institutions by AICTE

[Balachandran Sivakumar]

Hi all,

I understand that this is a Python group and not a free software
group. But there are quite a few free software enthusiasts here, and
they might already know/like to know the news. So, I apologise
upfront, for posting this off-topic information.


But Microsoft, has made a pact with AICTE, by which all college
approved my AICTE will have to mandatorily use office 365+MS's cloud
email solution. I came to know about this when my alma mater,
Thiagarajar College of Engineering where we have been running our own
mail servers with just free software was asked to migrate to AICTE by
pointing the MX records to some domain of Microsoft.

Here is the release from AICTE -
http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/AICTE_notice.pdf

Here is an article about this on Microsoft's site -
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Office-365/All-India-Council-for-Technical-Education/India-Institute-Deploys-7.5-Million-Office-365-Seats-to-Improve-Governance-Learning/710000002268

Linux Users Group, Chennai and a few other LUGs are also discussing
this issue. Would like to know if people here suggest something to
counter this. Thanks

-- 
Thank you
Balachandran Sivakumar

Arise Awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
                                                             - Swami Vivekananda

Mail: benignbala at gmail.com
Blog: http://benignbala.wordpress.com/