In an open letter to the university, UP's President announced that they will be moving from Windows to Linux. This is a huge news. University of the Philippines is considered as the best state university we have. But a state university it still is. Budget cuts in education have made this haven of liberal education cash-strapped. They can no longer stand to pay licensing fees for their Microsoft software. I mean, who would want to? It's absurd that you have to pay for licensing when you've already bought the software.

The transition to Linux represents not only an economic decision, but a political as well. It about time institutions stood up to corporate software behemoths like Microsoft and say "No more!"

UP will be sourcing it's Linux from the Department of Science and Technology's ASTI (Advanced Science and Technology Institute). They've come up with their own unique Linux OS based on Red Hat 7.2, called Bayanihan Linux. This one is geared for use by school and office users. It's quite a comprehensive package of software too. It comes, "Bundled with the latest office suite, image and text editors, internet and networking tools and multimedia applications..." Quite attractive, wouldn't you say? If you're on Linux, you can surf the Net quite confidently using Pentium II desktop. It's fast, it doesn't freeze on you, and it won't take forever to download stuff off the Net. Check it out folks.