Log in ...Tribune: IT supplement of The Tribune, Chandigarh, India. Guest Speak

Monday, December 16, 2002		Guest Speak

Create awareness about Linux
R. Manikandan

R. Manikandan Deputy General Manager, LG Electronics India Ltd.

GARTNER Group estimates that total spending on technology hardware in India would jump three-fold to $ 6.78 billion by 2006 from an estimated 2.3 billion in 2002. PC spending is estimated to contribute 85 per cent of total end user spending in 2002 and will account for 90 per cent of total market in 2006.

This data truly reflects the huge potential that the PC market holds for India. In the present Indian scenario where the PC penetration is dismally low by world standards, there is a need for a conscious effort both from government and private bodies to bring about an increase in the PC penetration. The digital divide in the PC space can only be bridged when there is an option for the masses for a low cost PC with excellent after-sales support services. Just imagine, there are over lakhs of schools which need PC for the education of the children in India, and similar things can be said about many other institutions of government as well.

Under these circumstances, there is an urgent need of a PC, which can offer user friendliness along with a price point, which is affordable. The only thing, which comes to mind under these circumstances, is an operating system that caters to both the aforesaid needs. Linux OS is the answer to these problems. Linux OS is not only relatively stable and bug free but it would also add to lowering the price point of the product.

There are several advantages of using Linux. The advantages include cost of the Linux OS and the licence fee. There are no bothersome site licenses or EULAs to deal with, and no do-not-redistribute-or-modify agreements to sign. The only expenses involved are those of hardware and maintenance.

In terms of OS stability, Linux almost never freezes under normal use, where normal means anything but changing the OS itself.

These days it also runs on ARMs, DEC Alphas, SUN Sparcs, M68000 machines (like Atari and Amiga), MIPS and PowerPCs, as well as others. No matter what computer one uses, Linux will work on the hardware configuration. In terms of power and customisation, Linux makes full use of the computer system.

Linux can be tailored to the specific hardware and software needs as well. It has the ability to connect several different types of machines into a coherent whole; For example, Linux can run both SMB protocol (which Windows understands), and AppleTalk (for Mac users), so it can act as a Windows/Mac go-between (even if it’s running on a Sun Workstation).

Some of the common myths about Linux OS include the fact that Linux open-source is of no real consequence or benefit to the average desktop user. Well, yes, the fact that the average desktop user may never build a kernel from source (or change a line of code) may mean that it is of no consequence to that individual desktop user that the source is freely available. However, it is a huge benefit to the average user to be able to leverage the excellent work that others put into Linux (on their behalf) in order to improve the core source code to the OS, and this benefit should never be underestimated.

A recurring complaint also includes that there are too many different versions of Linux. Actually it is not so. There’s only one version of the current Linux kernel. There may be too many distributions of Linux, and the obvious reason might be to say that the differences cause confusion to Linux newcomers.

In addition to the usual Linux-is-hard-to-install concept, there is also a common complaint that the Linux command line is hard to learn and use. Practically it is simply the opposite. The Linux user-interface came in for further unwarranted bashing, Linux GUIs are slow. Well, this really depends on the hardware you’re running on. To put Linux on an old PC and then complain when the Linux GUI runs slowly is just not comparing apples with apples, no matter what way you look at it.

Basically what is needed is the creation of awareness about Linux OS and the need to break the notion about that Linux is successful only in the server space and not in the OS space. A lot needs to be done in terms of the end users, to make them aware of the benefits of the Linux OS, so as to establish the fact that the Linux is not only stable and user-friendly but also reduces the burden in terms of cost.