linux

["Shiv Kumaar" <shivkumar@satyam.net.in>]

IT Industry Set To Be Linuxed: Nasscom


R Ravichandran, Financial Express


Hyderabad:  The National Association of Software and Services Companies
(Nasscom) bets big on the open source software - Linux. The apex body of the
software companies argues that Linux has the potential to grow into a
leading operating system (OS) in India, co- existing with the other
established players in this market.



Though the Linux still has huge challenges, as the OS matures and moves up
the evolutionary cycle, it is likely to garner larger and larger support
among the IT user segments, claims Nasscom in its recent study.

What goes in Linux's favour is the immense sustenance it is generating from
a host of companies in India including Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Wipro,
Integra Microsystems and Veritas, who have developed products for the Linux
platform and made them available for the customers.

With the governments from West Bengal to Munich to Dallan and companies from
Hindustan Lever to Credit Suisse First Boston, implementing Linux seriously,
any company ignoring Linux does so at its own peril, warns the apex software
body.

Nasscom said that the rapid proliferation of Linux in worldwide markets,
among large enterprises, is finding an echo in the Indian market as well and
it is becoming increasingly clear that the OS will rank among the premier IT
solutions being deployed in future times.

Quoting the IDC prediction on Linux as the fastest growing operating system
in the world, Nasscom points out that India too is waking up to the reality
of Linux. The open source movement is making strides in India with the
developer community in the country evincing tremendous interest in the Linux
platform.

While pin-pointing the ripples created by major governments such as Europe
and the US in implementing the Linux platform, Nasscom said that a number of
states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Maharashtra are either implementing or proposing to it take up for their e-
government projects.

The low-cost Linux advantage is also going down well with SMEs (small and
medium enterprises) in India.

Touted as the hottest growth market, the SME sector can possibly benefit the
most by using Linux, which would in turn create huge opportunity for the
Linux, Nasscom said further.

The penetration of the OS among the research and development and education
communities is also pushing up its stock within the Indian set up. In a
region where operating systems such as Windows 2000 from Microsoft and
Novell's Netware have entrenched themselves, India is gradually opening its
doors to the low-cost, flexible and scalable Linux, it pointed out.

Linux, with its intrinsic strength as an easily customisable operating
system, could well be used to spark off an Indian language software
revolution in the country that envelopes and percolates down to the
grassroot levels in the country.

There are several initiatives are underway to localise Linux in Indian
languages. While IIT (Chennai) is working on localising Linux to Malayalam
and Tamil, the IIIT (Bangalore) too has committed to the 'IndLinux' project,
Nasscom maintained.

With the Linux gaining popularity among the global and Indian user
communities, the software development brigade in India is also gradually
joining the Linux bandwagon. A number of 450,000 to 600,000 developers in
India are being drawn into the Linux vortex, based on the OS' proliferation
in the global markets.

Though Linux is gradually gaining its stature in India, it is a fact that
the OS is an add-on to existing platforms within their organisations. Linux
is still largely at the departmental and file or print server state rather
than at the mission critical database server level, Nasscom said adding,
that it still has a lot of ground to gain before it can migrate Unix users
to its fold.