There is this student called Venkat. He is a gifted artiste and visualizer. Some of his design works are outstanding. He is passionate about his abilities and wants to continue this as a profession. Flickr and Google inspired him to design something for the Web. He wants to combine his designs with the Web and create neat user experiences. Most of his works are still paper based. One of his friends suggested him to take up a computer course and learn graphics software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. That will put him in the right path to realize his dream of creating good user experiences in the Web. Without tools like these softwares it’s impossible to create something for the Web. But this is where the problem started. He hails from a lower middle class family and can't afford computer courses. They are expensive and will not allow him to spend as much time as he wants. He instead preferred buying a computer and practice at home.
The computer costed him 30k rupees. When he enquired about Illustrator and Photoshop, they were priced 22k (500USD) and 29k rupees (650USD) respectively. This was equivalent of his father's quarterly salary! He had already borrowed enough money from his father and knows his father can not afford any more money. There were more pressing matters than his software at home. Despite his problems, his father promised him to save money for this software. In the meantime, his friend suggested him to try GIMP. GIMP is an open source equivalent of Photoshop. He was really happy about this and started practicing his design work. But sooner realised GIMP was not meeting all his requirements. He had experienced Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in his friend’s place and was happy about their abilities. He was in a dilemma at this point. Should he wait till his father saves him the required 51k? That would not happen for another 8 months. And by then he had to start searching for a job. Nobody would give him a job if he didn't know these software packages. Everything was in jeopardy. Or should he get back to his friend and ask him for a copy of Photoshop and Illustrator?
So, what should Venkat do now? Should he be ethical and wait till his poor father struggles to arrange money? Should he be patient when his other friends are overtaking him despite his natural abilities? Or should we say 'hey you can't afford these softwares and so you can't create what you want..sorry about it'?
Just because he is poor shouldn't suggest he doesn't have the privilege to learn the best software and chase his passion.
Anybody who has worked with GIMP and Photoshop will know that GIMP cannot come anywhere close to Photoshop. I have used both of them for longer periods and now settled for GIMP because I am not a designer. I just have to crop few images or pick colours from an image.
Scenarios like this are not uncommon. Bright kids struggle with command line compilers on slower computers when everybody else has the luxury of visual tools, faster computers and more productive programming environments. Having seen village kids from closer circles I know there are Venkats in every Indian village. I am not even considering urban areas here. These people do not know what open source or commercial means. They also have a dream. Who is NASSCOM to deny it?
There are a number of ways to tackle piracy than simply issuing press statements and creating flashy advertisements like "kill piracy". As a nodal body, NASSCOM and other such bodies can pursue product houses to release student versions or learning editions. This will help students to acquire necessary skills before they can enter the corporate world. Not many companies including Adobe have student or learning editions. Microsoft has taken some steps in this direction. They have released student/learning editions for a few of their products.
Alternatively they can create an eco-system to consume software like GIMP. That encourages the usage of open source systems and also creates demand for such products to sustain and mature as products with out costing any money.
When the world is advancing with technology we can't leave rest of the country behind us. They need some handles to catch with the rest of us and come along.
