First of all if any body is interested in GNU/Linux eduation for schools mail me. I have talked in Redhat about this , they have given positive response. Our group (north mumbai) had send some queries to redhat director, Mr.Javed Tapia, he has answered to the following questions :
1) What initiatives has Red Hat taken for Linux in India ? Ans: Red Hat has been at the forefront of evangelising the use of Open source & Linux in India.It has been working closely with the Government and the corporate sector towards educating them on the benefits of adopting the Linux as their platformvfor deploying Corporate applications. Simultaneosuly, keeping the home user in mind, it also launched extremely user friendly Linux Distributions of the likes of Red Hat Linux 8.0 last year and Red Hat Linux 9 this month. Corporates world over can now use Open Source in the form of Linux in all areas of Enterprise computing. Red Hat has launched a family of products for the enterprise called "Red Hat Enterprise Linux". For any technology to succeed, an ecosystem requires to be created to nuture the technology and help it mature. Red Hat has been working extremely hard in ensuring this..by getting its Enterprise Products certifed by OEMs, and have ISV's develop their range of applications on Red Hat Linux. By training people and helping them obtain Red Hat Certficiation, partnering with professional technology and IT training companies all across India and helping Governments & schools go open source Red Hat has helped in its own small ways take Linux to the Enterprise.
2) Is RedHat using Indian techie skills sufficiently? How? Ans: Red Hat's policy is to grow from with skill sets internally and over time grow in numbers with growth in business oppurtunities. Red Hat does value its employees both Technical and Non-Technical. The average techie at Red Hat is about 25 and comes to Red Hat from various locations across the country. Each employee be it Technical-Non Technical brings in his/her area of specialisation towards helping take the company to greater heights. Their contributions are towards Red Hat's Engineering, Product Development and Professional Consultancy business aspects.
Is there any any Linux-related event on the cards from RedHat ? Ans: YEs. those on the anvil we will announce shortly.
4) Is RedHat aware that computing power is still an issue in India (i.e. many of us still use fairly old systems). If so, what attempts are being made to ensure such users are not hit by the heavy demands of recent distros? Ans:At Red Hat we always Endeavor towards delivering the best Open source has to offer. Towards achieving this objective, Red Hat is forced to keep up with the best and latest developments on the Desktop Front. Inspite of the huge processing demands of latest Open Source applications Red Hat makes sure that it has all the options available via its Installer to allow for suitable customisation for any low end x86 box. So you see, after all it just boils down to CHOICE which the user can exercise.
5) Why is RedHat going the bloatware way? Ans: Great question to ask. Bloatware in essence depends on ones point of view. Bloatware applications generally are those which get labelled for hogging huge Disk Space and Memory Resources. As mentioned previously, towards delivering the best and latest in terms of Open Source innovations to the consumer on the desktop; applications and their feature sets galore adding up to the size of the whole distribution. Though over years the final size of the Red Hat consumer Operating Systems have increased dramatically over time, one shouldn't fail to notice the evolution of Linux on the Desktop purely due to the fact the Operating Systems like Red Hat have endeavored towards delivering the Latest and the Best to the customer. Inspite of it all Red Hat is about providing customer the choice towards making an appropriate stripped down selection of packages for his/her machine.
6) What exactly was RedHat's contribution to the Goa Schools Computers Project? Ans: Red Hat provided the OS for all the machines, helped in the installation process and trained about 120 teachers on Linux essentials and use of office tools.
7) How have state governments here reacted to open source softwares ? Ans: The Governments have shown considerable interest to open source and Linux in particular. Recently it was heartening to hear the President of India too give a call to all Indians to go the open source way. In fact, we are currently working with MP Treasuries, Maharashtra Land Records among other projects.There a whole lot of project implementations by DIT for Mantralaya which run on Red Hat Linux. We also recently signed an MOU with NICSI ( the procurement arm of Governments) to develop a mechaniim towards delivering quantifiable services.
8) What has been the response of users to Linux as a business tool ? Ans: Extremely good. Lots of organisations are using open source not only as high cost saving tools but also for better performance. Business users today have a choice and dont need to get locked into one vendor.
9) Why Linux took such a long time to capture market ? Ans: Linux initially did not have any organisation to take responsibily for the software. This was critical for business users. Red Hat helped solved that problem. Also taking on a well entrenched player in any market takes time. An ecosystem also needs to be created which doesnt happen overnight. eg: if u send a spreadsheet created in open office, that receiver needs to be able to read and react. This was not possible till a while back and in some cases even now because of blocking strategies of market leaders.
10) Why should anybody continue using proprietary software? Ans: You tell me!
11) What is your endeavour to spread Free Software/Open Source in schools? Ans: A considerable number of schools have begun to use Linux, both as a network server and internet gateway and router and as a desktop operating system. With the recent enormous growth of interest in Linux this usage is certain to accelerate. Red Hat offers a radical alternative to the way schools have traditionally used computers: an alternative which is attractive in terms of cost, stability, control and security.
12) How many people do you employ in India? Ans: About 30 people.
13) Any plans to make your product more affordable by Indian standards? Ans: Our products are affordable by Indian standards and we will constantly endeavour to offer it at the best possible price.
14) What steps are you taking to bring Linux to home desktops where pirated Windows OS is flourishing? Ans: We are launching desktop OS versions every six months with better applications. We will also launch Red Hat in Hindi down the line.
15) How do you think Microsoft is taking Linux ? Ans: Better answered by them, dont you think?. Linux and its army of developers is something even a company of the likes of Microsoft can hire. I know you understand better than me....that its not always about money.....!!!!
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