The Linux Line-up

Meet Linux, the operating system that’s giving Bill Gates nightmares. And is beginning a slow but sure climb in India’s IT mindspace.

Every year, say MAIT estimates, three million desktop PCs are sold in India. Only two per cent use Linux. That seems small, is small. Yet the PC market is growing at a scorching 18 per cent a year in India — and Linux, estimates say, could be doing a nippy 20 per cent.

It’s still got years of catching up to do and may make nothing more than a dent in the $10 billion a year Indian software market. But boy, does Tux, the cute Penguin that’s the Linux mascot, have his fan club!

From computer geeks to corporate gurus, there’s an Indian sold on Linux every minute. This story tells you just why.

Begin with the dummy’s guide
BUT first, what the heck is Linux? It’s a free operating system that is being touted as the alternative to Windows. An operating system is what gets your computer going each time you switch it on. But be careful. As a Linux evangelist once warned: ‘‘The free in free software refers to free as in freedom, not free as in beer.’’

That may be getting ahead of the story. Return to operating systems. Microsoft Windows is the most popular — 81 per cent of Indian computers use it — but its licences are expensive (Rs 3,000-8,000, depending on which version you buy). Upgrading from Windows 95 to 98 to XP must have cost you or your company a little packet.

Linux, first devised in 1992 by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student with a rebellious, egalitarian bent, threatens to change that. Linux comes free, you could borrow a CD from a friend or download it off the Net. Of course, you’d need to have an operating system in the first place to get nto the Net. But that’s another story.

You can tweak Linux as you want, if you’re a geek yourself. There’re no proprietary right infringements to worry about. You only need to keep calling it Linux, and give everyone else the same right. Indeed, there are 500 Linux types — or ‘‘flavours’’ — doing the rounds.

You can also ‘‘buy’’ Linux from service providers. The software comes free; you only pay for customer support. This could cost you Rs 1,500-4,000 and is generally resorted to by companies, rather than individual users.

It ain’t just about money, honey
AH, you’ll say. So even Linux service providers charge, just like Microsoft does for Windows. What’s the difference?

For a start, many upgrades are free. Every new ‘‘version’’ of Linux doesn’t mean throwing out what’s already on your machine — like removing Windows 2000 to bung in Windows XP. What’s more, since most viruses seem custom-written to hit Windows-driven computers, Linux is virtually virus-free.

So who’s bringing Linux to India? Other than individual users and their word of mouth campaign, hardware vendors. As PC and laptop prices crash, the cheapest machines come with Linux, roughly a Rs 10,000 saving from a Windows machine.

Between them, Novell, Onward-Novell and Red Hat — some of the most popular Linux brands today — have four development centres and 600 Linux programmers in India.

‘‘India is a very strategic and important market for us,’’ says Munesh Jalota, country manager, Asia, Onward-Novell. ‘‘Globally, Linux is expected to grow at 19.7 per cent overall, and at 44 per cent on desktops, faster than any other platform today. That’s a big chunk of the market in India.’’

So who’s in the Linux league anyway?
EVERYDAY, it seems, Linux wins new adherents — the Central Bank of India to BSNL, the government of Tamil Nadu to budget businesses. Net Aquila Solutions, a Gurgaon/Delhi-based BPO in the medical transciptions segment, is a recent Linux convert. ‘‘When I joined Net Aquila a year ago, only one machine was running Linux. Beginning March this year, we migrated all our support functions to Linux. This includes e-mail, spam filtering and document processing,’’ says vice-president Ankur Rohatgi.

By removing MS Office (which includes Word, Power Point, Excel et al), e-mail and three specialised machines to Linux, Net Aquila claims to have saved close to Rs 10-12 lakh a year on licence fees.

Rohatgi can’t stop smiling: ‘‘Technically too, I found Linux superior. Now we don’t have to run around looking after viruses.’’

In India, a Unix selling proposition
ROHATGI’S reasons for migrating to Linux are not unique. In a March 2004 study of firms that had switched to Linux, Forrester Research said:

• 86 per cent found it cost effective;
• 31 per cent went for better security/virus protection;
• 24 per cent spoke of generally higher quality.

Specially relevant for India was the report’s admission that moving from older, Unix-based computers to Linux resulted in cost savings of 45 per cent. India’s strong replacement market for Unix computers is a boon for Linux. ‘‘India is primarily Unix country,’’ says Red Hat India director Javed Tapia. ‘‘It is very easy to migrate from Unix to Linux as the code is very similar.’’

One of Red Hat’s key customers is Central Bank. As per K. Raghuraman, the bank’s general manager, IT, when all branches switch to Linux over two years, it’ll save $1 million in licence fees and training and maintenance costs.

Yet the window — pardon the pun — of opportunity is limited. Says Partha Iyengar, vice-president, Gartner Research. ‘‘In India, I’m afraid the Linux uptake is not too high. In back-end servers, Linux is most of the time a replacement for Unix. But as far as desktops are concerned, Linux penetration is still insignificant.’’

Tux at the li’l guy’s heart
EVEN if rare, Tux the penguin’s individual-user fans are committed. Says Chirag Patnaik, a Delhi-based marketing executive and Linux addict since he tired of Windows in March this year, ‘‘Since I use a laptop, for which Linux offerings were limited, I stuck with Windows for years. Now I have switched to Linux since the level of ease of use has come down to non-geek levels. Today, anyone using any computer can use a Linux box.’’

Globally too Linux vendors are waxing eloquent on how they are set to ‘‘take over’’ desktops in the next seven years. ‘‘According to industry analyst IDC, in the Linux space, server (high-end machines) shipments are expected to grow by 28 per cent annually in 2002-07, compared to 10.3 per cent for Windows,’’ adds IBM’s Jyothi Satyanathan, head of Linux strategy, Asia-Pacific.

That aside, Linux in India is now recognised as a ‘‘community’’ project, constantly adding supporters among people who do not want to depend on a single vendor — Microsoft — for all their software needs. In sensitive fields like banking, this diversity and flexibility is attractive.

“For Linux, I have formulated the ‘4-S’, principle covering scalability, support, savings and security,’’ says Mumbai-based Sanjay Sharma, chief technology officer, IDBI Bank.

‘‘I must add here that contrary to belief, Linux is scalable. For example, at IDBI Bank, we started the enterprise mail server on Linux, and we could easily scale it from 200 plus people to more than 2,000 plus,’’ says Sharma.

Satish Naralkar, IT head at the National Stock Exchange, is equally satisfied. ‘‘Our online position monitoring for derivatives is on Linux,’’ he says, ‘‘the price advantage in Linux happens only when you are going for a number of solutions on the Linux platform. But I must warn you: you need trained personnel to run Linux.’’

But the competition’s snarling
THE Linux symphony irritates Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company. ‘‘Linux buyers forget that the cost of ownership for any software is not just at the point of purchase, but over a period of time,’’ says Abhijit Das, manager, platform strategies, Microsoft.

‘‘Besides, people buy Linux assuming it has no viruses. But this is a myth. At least four viruses have been reported for Linux in 2001 and 2002 — Scalper, Lion, Slapper and Ramen. And as the user base grows, many more viruses will be written for Linux,’’ adds Das.

Linux user IDBI Bank has another take on viruses. ‘‘It is pointed out that since Linux is based on open source code, it is not secure, but I must say that because Linux is open, so many more people will be working on solving security issues,’’ says IDBI’s Sharma.

Stronger criticism of Linux lies with Sun Microsystems, once the technology leader with its own open source offering — Solaris. Says Anil Velluri, India country manager, marketing, at Sun, ‘‘Linux is no more free than we are. We don’t charge for our software either, only for hardware (such as servers).’’

The road ahead … through China
THE big story about Linux isn’t about small users in India. It probably isn’t about India at all. It lies in China and it’s scaring Microsoft no end.

The Chinese would rather use an operating system they can ‘‘own’’, customise, build upon. Especially if the alternative is dependence on a single American company. It’s not just a question of monopoly, for China’s over-cautious government, it’s a security issue as well.

In India, the big moment for Linux — the big shock for a certain Mr Gates — will come when large PSUs and whole governments begin to make their way out of Microsoft’s grip.

That could reshape India’s $ 10 billion a year software bill. That could see Linux hitting the big time.

Ask Tux. He thinks the time is now.

with Arundhati Bakshi-Dighe

Open source’s open secrets

Walking you through Linux, the mascot of ‘free software’

Linux is an operating system — a large piece of software that makes computers work. It was initially written by Linus Torvalds, a young Finnish student, who made it freely available.

Since anyone could use, modify and distribute Linux, techies became the biggest fans. Some began selling their own versions. Contrary to myth, Linus or other Linux enthusiasts never said you couldn’t make money by selling free software.

Parallel to ‘‘free software’’, there grew the ‘‘open source’’ software movement. Under this, software could be distributed like a product but the source code or core of the package could not be viewed, sold off or altered.

Casual software buyers, unaware of the difference, often erroneously refer to both kinds as ‘‘open source’’.

So, Red Hat is open source, while Debian Linux is ‘free.’’

Getting Linux
Linux can be got through distributors, such as Red Hat and Novell, who offer the code with maintenance, fixes, patches and support. Or users can take on the code themselves.

One of the biggest difficulties in migrating from Windows to Linux is the lack of knowledge about comparable software. New users usually search for Linux analogs of Windows software, and advanced Linux users cannot answer their questions since they often don’t know too much about Windows!

This list of Linux equivalents/analogs of Windows software could help.

Web browser
Windows: Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera Firebird
Linux: Galleon, Mozilla, Lynx, Opera, Firebird, Netscape, Epiphany, Nautilius

E-mail
Windows: Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, Mozilla
Linux: Evolution, GNUmail, Netscape, Mozilla, Warrior, Datula, Althea, Arrow, The Bat, Eudora, Becky, LiaMail, KMail, Sylpheed,

Text editor
Windows: Notepad, WordPad, TextPad, Vim, Xemacs
Linux: Vim, Emacs, Joe, Fte, Jed, CoolEdit