The Hindu Business Line : `Advantage India in Linux spread'

UNLIKE most other geeky Linux advocates or diehard developers, Jon `Maddog' Hall is a venerable figure with a ready wit, flowing Father Christmas beard and hair and a deep voice. Dubbed `Maddog' by his students, he is one of Linux's more accepted advocates, Microsoft-baiting notwithstanding.

In India to promote Linux International, the non-profit group that promotes Linux adoption and Linux communities, of which he is the executive director, Maddog says that India has an edge over other countries in Linux development and adoption.

"With people experienced in the UNIX environment, India is ahead of the game in Linux development and adoption, when compared to other developing countries," he said adding that with increased high speed Net connectivity, India was sure to see wider adoption.

Across the world, Linux adoption is being led by Governments in South America, China, eastern Europe and India, quite apart from Germany, the US and other `First World' countries, either because it offers flexibility or price-performance advantages or cost, according to him. The Indian Government must wake up to the possibilities of Linux, he said.

Since the Linux code can be customised by local developers to suit local requirements, all the money that is spent on software is available to the local economy - certainly a good thing for local governments and another reason for them and the community to adopt it," he said.

Further, no dependence can be placed on the fact that the licensing scheme you opted for will continue, said `Maddog' in a dig at the changed Microsoft licensing regime.

2004 will see a 15-25 per cent penetration of Linux into the desktop market, says Maddog, In a mature market, Linux would probably be running on 40 per cent of the desktops while Linux was ready for the enterprises as well, he said. "As many countries work to wipe out pirated software, individuals and enterprises will see the value offered by free customisable operating systems and adoption is set to skyrocket", he said. Linux enables every country to build its own software economy, he said.

Open-source is an amplification system for an individual's efforts and this is going to be the new way of developing software, says Maddog.

With over 7,60,000 developers on open-source, even if a only tenth of the projects under way can yield value, that is more resources that any single company on the face of the earth can bring together, pointed out Maddog.

Linux-based server from SGI

SGI India is targeting the midrange technical computing market with its new Linux operating system-based server, the SGI Altix 350.

The Itanium 2 and 64-bit Linux OS-based server aims to get a slice of the $2.6-billion midrange market worldwide and cater to customer requirements in India, according to the company. It will serve technical database servers, departmental servers and throughput clusters, while leveraging open-source components and standards, according to SGI. Users of standards-based computing environment can run hundreds of standard Linux applications on Altix; there are approximately 100 technical market applications specifically optimised to adopt the advanced architectural features of Altix, according to Mr Avinash Fotedar, Director, Marketing.