On Friday 06 July 2001 18:18, Srikanth wrote:
Dear Friends,
This is Srikanth RP from Express Computer, an IT business news magazine from the Indian Express group. As I am planning an article on 'India's contribution to Linux', I would like your views on the same. Please spare some time to answer the following questions.
- Why do you think Linux is important to India?
The biggest stumbling block to development is lack of information, which is the CAPITAL of the information society. Place restrictions in the form of patents and licensing on the flow of information and you are are in essence creating monopolies and preventing development. (Microsoft uses huge chunks of BSD code in it's win2000 and XP suites. These form the core of it's .NET strategy. Yet it chooses to place draconian restrictions on usage and blackmouth the very same opensource movement from which it is trying to build a future). Added to this is the high cost of traditional proprietary software and it's anglo centric nature. The GNU foundation recognises this draconian restriction and choooses to fight this by providing tools of the information age free of cost and encumberances in the form operting system, development tools, and application software. A typical Linux distro consists of the linux kernel and thousands of applications and tools without cost and encumberances.
The Linux kernel and most of the accompanying software is provided with source code and is essentially free of cost. Thus it is possible to customise and reuse all of the code.
These are the prime reason why India must adopt opensource - freedom to innovate and adapt.
Our technical educational institutions lag behind their western counterparts mainly due to the very high cost of development tools. A typical linux distro comes with software tools worth several hundred dollars and do not require any royalty payments on products developed using them. Further sophisticated hardware development tools like VHDL compilers, simulators, VLSI design tools, and the cores of sophisticated microprocessors costing upwards of USD25,000/- is avaiable for free.
- Have Indians contributed to the growth of Linux? Can you
mention some names or examples? Have any Indians contributed to the development of the Kernel?
- What do you think about the Linux movement in India? What is
the current scenario? Why companies like IBM are keen on promoting Linux?
The major cost of software is in development, a major chunk of this is testing and debugging. Development depends on a continuos flow of ideas.
The opensource development model scales linearly on both counts since thousands of developers are contributing to both areas. Thus commercial companies like IBM find that they can reduce their development cost to zero and at the same time have development on a scale that would bankrupt most companies. (witness Microsoft crying hoarse ;-)).
- Has the Indian government showing a keen interest in Linux ?
Can you mention some names and examples?
http://www.gnu-india.org A project known as sarai has been started in Delhi for providing computing resources using opensource to slum dwellers.
- Do you know of any companies in India who have developed
applications for the Linux platform?
- What do you think should be done to promote the growth of
Linux in India?
Accurate verification of PR stuff dished out by the proprietary software companies before publishing.
Looking forward to your article.