The Hindu Business Line : It's celebration time at Virtusa Corp

IT is Penguin's day out. About 1,200 software developers at Virtusa Corporation in the their Indian and global development centres converged to declare today Software Freedom Day celebrating the increasing popularity of Linux as a commercial phenomenon.

The Chief Software Architect, Virtusa Corporation, Mr. Arjun Mukherjee, told Business Line that the one-day event is being celebrated to toast the success of open source among software developers.

"We are in fact celebrating a day ahead as August 28 celebrated as open source day falls on Saturday."

"This was the time when Linus Torvalds, man associated with Linux, sent a message to the developer community about the open source movement.

This has come a long way since then and gradually spreading to desktops in homes.

"While the meet is dotted with Software Freedom quiz, computer gaming and others, the underlining message is that Linux as desktop has come a long way as safe option to users. In fact, Steve Jobbs of Apple Computer would make a video presentation on the advantages of open source."

"One of the hindrances for the popularity of Linux desktops was the issue about compatible software required for gaming.

First this is a myth.

This can be gauged from the fact that several leading gaming solutions providers including Epic and ID Software have provided Linux compatibility and support for popular games itself is an endorsement about Linux's flexibility and robustness," Mr Mukherjee said.

"Well, when people say it is difficult to chose which Linux system to opt for.

"The answer is simple. Be it Mandrake, Red Hat or for that matter any other product, a user often tends to chose one of them depending on what he requires. Based on who is the distributor. All of them support the same open source cause," he said.

"Mr Torvalds and Penguin logo associated with Linux are no longer mere posters but mean business not just on desktops but enterprise servers and this is something we can vouch for when we provide solutions to our enterprise customers on open source," he added.