New subject: Answers to our group(north mumbai group) queries by Javed Tapia,Director, RedHat-India - kunalbharati

14 Jun 2003


      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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[ILUG-BOM] Answers to our group(north mumbai group) queries by Javed Tapia, Director, RedHat-India - kunalbharati

GLUG Meeting on 8th 4pm at PUKAR, Near CST.