Open Source Technology

In 1999, during my BUET undergrad days, my friend PPM and I wanted to install Linux. At that time, there were only a few people in BUET who had heard about Linux, let alone install it. So, we kind of did it blindly, with some help from Susham bhai (batch 92). The rest of the BUET students were happy with their pirated copies of Windows and all types of software. Even our cse lab had plenty of pirated, unlicensed copies of Microsoft software.

Time have changed. Now, almost everyone knows of Linux, and a large number of students have installed it. However, it is disheartening that the department hasn't adopted it as a development environment. This results in students not learning any LaTeX, coding in gcc, or even vi. So, whenever these students arrive in grad school, suddenly, they are immersed in Open source technology, and go through a "khabi-khawa" phase. Most of the universities in USA are almost completely based in Linux or Solaris. And acadmic courses mostly use Linux based systems.

So, this is what students need to do: Learn the following things - Basic Linux commands, LaTeX, gcc, vi. These are the minimal set of things, there are plenty of other things.

Also, students need to have a sense of IP. Pirating software is not a good thing. Sure, in BD people do it, but that doesn't mean it is a thing you should do. Because, there are plenty of good alternatives.