Another unique initiative by Punjabi University; VC inaugurates PC Cannibalization Lab
Kanwar Inder Singh/ May 6,2023
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Arvind visited the University Computer Center of Punjabi University, Patiala on 5th May 2023 and inaugurated the PC Cannibalization Lab. This in itself is a unique kind of initiative which is not seen in this region.
Professor Arvind believes that free open source operating systems and software are the only cost-effective solution to address the computing needs of any organization.
Overall, the use of LTS editions of FOSS operating systems and software can provide many benefits for higher educational institutions in India. FOSS software is often available at no cost or at a lower cost than proprietary software, helping to reduce the financial burden on higher education institutions. He said that the university is soon going to modify the user interface of popular Linux distros and also add new features or functionality.
He believes that FOSS software is often designed to be lightweight and efficient, which means it can run on lower-spec hardware without compromising performance, thereby decreasing the total cost of a computing device.
Additionally, FOSS software often offers the flexibility to run on a wide range of hardware platforms, which can provide cost savings in terms of hardware purchases and upgrades. In a first-of-its-kind experiment under his guidance, a task was given to the University Computer Center to assemble i3, i5, i7 processor based desktops on campus. It was observed that assembled desktop computers with i3, i5 and i7 processing proved to be relatively cheaper than the respective branded version.
The guidelines given by the Vice Chancellor to shift to assembled computers using Linux operating system and open source software are undoubtedly commendable. His guidance has led to significant savings as well as the adoption of Linux and open source software in the university.
On campus today, cloud services (e-office, IHRMS etc.), web calls and other social media applications are also frequently required. It is said that an old laptop/desktop with 2 GB RAM and 40 GB hard disk drive in working condition is enough to do good office work even today.
Another unique initiative by Punjabi University; VC inaugurates PC Cannibalization Lab. Using Ubuntu and LinuxMint to install LibreOffice on these machines including word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics, Document viewer for viewing and using pdf documents, Thunderbird for email, Firefox web browser, Chromium web browser (= Chrome), gThumb for organizing, editing and naming photos and Gimp for photos / image processing, VLC Media Player for video + music, OpenShot for video editing, Skype for video calls, Dropbox for cloud services etc. can be used comfortably. Likewise, this type of setup is perfect for C/C++, Java, Python, R, MySql, LAMP based web applications that can be easily adopted in departmental labs.
(royalpatiala.in News)
