Is Linux really happening in India, or is it just hype?

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

Is Linux really happening in India, or is it just hype?
SOBHA MENON

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JUNE 01, 2003 01:35:28 AM ]

It’s being billed as the solution that will deliver the masses from 
computer illiteracy. And so it was hardly surprising when a recent 
MAIT-organised seminar on “Open Source Software: A New Direction for 
India?” drew a larger-than-expected audience that stayed on till the 
very end.

The seminar did throw up some very pertinent questions on open source 
software (OSS) and helped quite a bit in clearing the myth that the 
immediate adoption of Linux may be the solution to India’s problems. 
As V Chandrashekhar, global head of s-governance practice, TCS, 
explains: “Linux use has increased as a result of the economic 
downturn and the decrease in perceived difficulty in using it. Linux 
is the de facto standard in embedded systems and in areas of high-end 
computing -- but it will be some time before it gets popular at the 
desktop level. ”

 The low cost Linux advantage is what may make it acceptable to small 
and medium size businesses (SMEs) for accessing web servers, mail 
servers, and other technologies. Open source code, besides makes it 
more acceptable in high-end computing areas such as software 
development, genome unravelling, etc, and in areas where security is 
paramount -- say, the IT operations of the defence forces.

But the common view that anyone who hasn’t been exposed to any 
operating system, for instance Windows, may be a potential user of 
Linux may not be true as of now. D S Pandit, who heads the 
information systems at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is an 
example. “I got a free CD at a conference in Goa on Linux software 
for desktops. It took my IT department 10 days to download it and 
even after that I didn’t find it easy to use.” For instance, the fact 
that files created on Star Office sometimes cannot be read on Windows 
is a disadvantage.

“This is an issue that only Microsoft can deal with,” says Sandeep 
Menon, Linux Business Manager, IBM Asean/SA. And it’s unlikely that 
Microsoft will deal with it in a hurry. Sanjeev Mathur, who heads 
marketing at Microsoft India, explains that the eco-system that 
Microsoft had created around its products include pre- and post-sales 
services and academic institutions to develop skills around Microsoft 
products. “It’s an eco-system that Linux can’t match,” Mathur says. 
And there’s no reason why Microsoft  should include competing Linux 
software in that eco-system.

A Nasscom report too which talks about the “silent Linux movement” in 
India admits that “while Linux is gaining stature, it is a fact that 
currently, the OS is an add-on to existing platforms within user 
organisations. Analysts also point out that Linux is still largely at 
the departmental and file or print server stage rather than at the 
mission critical database server level.” The report also points out 
that Linux deployments are confined predominantly to the server end 
with less action at the desktop level and that “this factor too will 
impede Linux’s rapid fire expansion in the Indian market.”

However, speaker after speaker at the conference spoke about a 
revolution of sorts. “It’s like the flower power movement of the 
Seventies,” said Menon, who exhorted the government to “define open 
standards in public sector procurement as a matter of policy”. Menon 
would also like government departments to encourage their staff to 
experiment with Linux, and evaluate Linux as part of the national IT, 
R&D and economic development strategies.

But it might be some time before that happens. The Nasscom report 
talks about e-governance projects on the anvil in many states such as 
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. But 
the fact is that most of these are just pilot projects. According to 
Chandrashekhar, TCS has about 10 e-governance projects in various 
states, but he says only 20 per cent of the solutions used would be 
Linux-based. Linux has its drawbacks, he says. “There is a lack of 
accountability because there are many bunches of developers with all 
kinds of offers. Also there is a reduced set of supporting hardware 
and business applications, a lack of guidelines, limitations 
regarding some high end operations, and limitations of user 
competence.”

The common refrain at the seminar was that Linux gave one the 
opportunity to work with open source code, until one government 
official piped up: “Why would I need open source code? What do I do 
with it when I don’t have the skills to modify it?” Open source code 
does have its uses -- in high security environments where you can 
customise security requirements. For software developers and in areas 
of high-end computing too, there’s a lot of  advantage in having open 
source software because it ensures flexibility in using the software.

So doesn’t Linux have much prospects in India? It sure does, but only 
if its introduced at the school level so that future generations can 
grow up working on Linux, a government official felt. Worldwide, 
there are many governments that have adopted a policy of using Linux. 
Germany, Taiwan, China and many other countries in the Asia Pacific 
region are encouraging the use of Linux and have announced many 
initiatives based on open source software.

In India, it’s seen as a slower movement that will grow in size 
gradually. “A host of companies in India have extended support to 
Linux, in line with  global strategies and initiatives undertaken by 
them in the open source space,” says Nasscom. Already leading IT 
vendors such as Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Wipro, Integra 
Microsystems and Veritas have developed products for the Linux 
platform. According to Nasscom, many of India’s 450,000 to 600,000 
software developers who create solutions for the export market are 
getting onto the Linux bandwagon. All these companies have a separate 
set of Linux strategies for the Indian market.  Red Hat’s also 
working overtime to increase Linux’s reach in India by working 
closely with government agencies such as NIC, ERDCI, IITs, NCST, MIT, 
etc , to develop applications on Linux. It’s  also put in place a 
network of training partners and is now offering courses in over 100 
centres in India.

And though government officials are still sceptical and look at it as 
a “hype created by a group of MNCs”, it may be   just a matter of 
time before the movement picks up.


source: 
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?ms
id=383