Dated December 26, 2002
The Economic Times - Online Edition

The government of India has started taking precise, wide-reaching steps to usher in a Linux wave in India.

And that cannot be good news for proprietary software vendors like Microsoft. Yesterday, the IT ministry had a meeting of around 70 people, from companies like HP, IBM, Sun and TCS, government agencies like BARC and C-DAC, state governments like Kerala, West Bengal and MP to evolve a level playing field for Linux vis-à-vis proprietary software (read Microsoft).

All the IITs too were represented at the meeting that went on for 4 hours.

There was consensus in the meeting that Linux was a secure, robust and cost-effective system.

As far as concrete pro-Linux acts go, government tenders may soon stop specifying Microsoft or any other vendor's name while floating software tenders, thus throwing open the way for Linux vendors to grab lucrative government contracts hitherto barred from them.

The government is also setting up special interest groups with officials of industry and academia to find out how Linux can be deployed in eGovernance, defense, education and so on.

Since support to Linux is still a big issue, the government is also thinking in terms of setting up support and resource services, and call centres for Linux users. It is also looking at setting up pilot sites, where Linux applications can be "touched and felt". A heartening fact for Linuxphiles would be the enthusiasm for Linux shown by extremely security-sensitive agencies like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the National Information Centre (NIC).

Another aspect that came out in the meeting was the work on Indianization of Linux that's happening now.

C-DAC's agency NCST and Red Hat have, for instance, developed a Hindi version of Linux, called Indix. IIT Mumbai too is doing pioneering research in Linux.

Yesterday's meeting of industry, academia and government representatives was chaired by IT Secretary Shri. R.R. Shah. According to industry sources, companies like Sun and TCS were all enthusiasm for Linux, with the TCS representative claiming that the company was implementing the country's largest Linux project in Chennai. The government, however, was at pains to bring out the fact that it was not against Microsoft or proprietary software and was only looking to leverage the strengths of open source software.

However, one official present at the meeting wisecracked, "Microsoft would have had a heart attack if it was present at the meeting. The interest in Linux at this meeting was palpable."

One influential official told the Economic Times that many people were "violently against" computer textbooks in schools and colleges teaching Microsoft Word or Excel, instead of generic applications or technologies, like word processors. Industry sources also said that on the sidelines of the meeting, there were two views among those present about Microsoft's reported move of sharing source code with the government. While some thought it was just "posturing" by Microsoft, others felt that it was a "genuine" attempt by the Redmond giant to reach out.

However, sources said that it was the representative from Madhya Pradesh, who made a forceful case for Linux. He said that since MP had a paucity of resources, Linux seemed the best solution for the state. He, however, said that there was need to train people in Linux technologies. A member of the Linux user group sprang up to say that the MP government can take help of the extremely active Linux User group in Indore.