In my opinion, _the_ reason for the enthusiasm in MIT is/was MKS. He
was tirelesly going around explaining, demonstrating, etc. Soon the
fire spread through the hostel.
One reason for MKS' success there was, he was not just giving lecutres
on Free Software. He was actually trying to educate people on
Internet(the technologies, protocols, uses, etc.) in a down to earth
fashion and while doing so, he was obviously using Free Software. Of
course, he was talking about Free Software a lot. But that was not
disjointed.
This is what I think happened in MIT. Others may know better. If so,
please correct me.
I think, this model is better when it comes to educate people
(especially students). This kind of "motivation of knowledge" will any
time attract any kind of student. In CEG also, you(and your friends)
can try to motivate/educate others in this way.
Prasanna David
Sridhar R wrote:
The real problem is that there are only few
students here to show their interests in GNU/Linux. I
even tried convincing them about the advantages of
free software, but they still stay behind. This was
something like saying `if one is sluggish then
everybody else will be sluggish`.
The case with MIT might be different. We here in
CEG, were told by our seniors to score a very high
CGPA (though the motivation of knowledge was meagre
from them), in the beginning. This would have shifted
the mindset of the students. But in MIT, CS course
was introduced for the first time, thus the students
are _hunting_ (for knowledge) to get used to
technology. I think the MIT people will continue this
same enthusiasm through all upcoming years. That's a
great advantage for them.
May be I should invite some of the MITians to
conduct FLOSS oriented talk at CEG, so that a kind of
competitive minds can be seen here.