Linux & the Subcontinent
Linux or more `correctly' Gnu/Linux is a free, complete UNIX style operating system which uses the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux has been around since the early 90's and has made rapid strides since then to place itself as a powerful desktop OS in addition to its more traditional superior-standing on the server front(as compared to Microsoft server 2000/NT etc).
There's no doubt that Microsoft(MS) OS(s) have the lions share of the desktop market(both home & office) all around the world. Reasons for this:
* Pricing for MS products is justifiable in terms of US salaries etc.
* There is an existing huge investment in MS hardware and software, which makes a transfer of technology a bad idea.
* MS has genuinely improved from the days of Windows 95 and has become a much more stabler and prettier OS in XP, albeit at the cost of much greater hardware requirements. Since the cost of hardware dropped, the two factors were balanced.
As far as the subcontinent is concerned, the entire scenario is reversed.
* Pricing of MS products is way too high for third-world salaries.
* There's not much existing investment into MS products.
* The hardware prices havent dropped as much in India, making the increased requirements of the more stable XP a burden.
Yet given these factors I'll hazard that MS "sells" way more then free Linux. That when:
* Day to day operations such as browsing, checking email, listening to music, watching movies, ripping/writing CD's & DVD's is equally easy and intuitive, and to top it, safer and less resource intensive in Linux.
* Free office productivity tools such as Openoffice provide compatible document formats in addition to platform-independent document formats such as PDF.
* Every conceivable programming tool(s) such as language libraries, compilers, editors, RADs(Rapid Application Development), IDEs(Integrated Development Environments) are freely available.
* It is a known fact that GNU compilers for C/C++ etc are superior to their MS counterparts, while GNU libraries are less resource intensive and have lesser bugs and inherent exploits(which hackers use so often to bring a MS machine to its knees). Stuff like Perl, Python, Awk, Tcl/Tk are a boon to programmers no matter what they engage in.
* Oracle, PostGRE sql and even puny MySql servers(can run on Linux machines) outclass or match MS SQL servers.
Given the numerous advantages of Linux and the resources that are available, its a mystery why home users and offices in India continue and persist with MS and on the hand, shy away from Linux.
Finally, MS might be a blood sucker of an org, but at the end of the day its still a company on US soil, and there's no reason to believe that in the future when cyber warfare might become more of a reality than sci-fi, the US govt asks MS to send `security upgrades' to its machines wolrdwide or to a specific geographic zone, which crashes those machines or corrupts vital information. We must remember when IBM came up with their 128-bit DES(Data Encryption Standard) encryption system, NSA forced them to use a 56-bit encrypted key, `cause NSA didnt possess the computing power to break a 128-bit key. In this regard, China has already built a customised OS which it calls "Red Flag Linux"(modelled closely on the Red Hat Linux distribution) and it uses this in its govt installations.
Admittedly there are some points of hardware incompatibilities because the hardware manufacturers dont have enough reason to invest in compatibility with Linux systems, but within an increasing market for Linux, their indifference is bound to be temporary. In this regard there are numerous examples of companies in the US traditionally providing applications for windows machines which have now started shipping compatible softwares(drivers) for the Linux platform. From a personal perspective, I now use windows only to voice-chat on yahoo. On a day when I have to do no coding(or I dont do any programming), I dont have to even open the much feared command console!;-) Also considering the painless manner of customizing the OS to "carry" a host of languages such as hindi, urdu, tamil, teleugu, gujrati, marathi, bengali, punjabi & assamese from what I recall, a Linux based machine has the potential to truly reach the masses. This means a native person(say a maharashtrian) will be able to read the news, write email & chat in his local toungue, marathi. Linux has the ability to be configured at 7(or 5, I forgot) different security levels from "weak" to "paranoid", the last level making it ideal for military and govt use.
India has aped the world as far as technology is concerned for long. The advent of Gnu/Linux gives India a unique opportunity to surge ahead given the economic fillip and the strong-IT base we possess. Isnt it time the Indian IT ministry took marketing Linux much more seriously(if it all is considering at the moment)? Isnt it time that the Indian IT-whiz kids started doing some thinking of their own? Isnt it time that people(the educate class)rose from their idle states & shed their prejudices(and fears) to embrace something new? How does Pakistan figure in this regard?
There's no doubt that Microsoft(MS) OS(s) have the lions share of the desktop market(both home & office) all around the world. Reasons for this:
* Pricing for MS products is justifiable in terms of US salaries etc.
* There is an existing huge investment in MS hardware and software, which makes a transfer of technology a bad idea.
* MS has genuinely improved from the days of Windows 95 and has become a much more stabler and prettier OS in XP, albeit at the cost of much greater hardware requirements. Since the cost of hardware dropped, the two factors were balanced.
As far as the subcontinent is concerned, the entire scenario is reversed.
* Pricing of MS products is way too high for third-world salaries.
* There's not much existing investment into MS products.
* The hardware prices havent dropped as much in India, making the increased requirements of the more stable XP a burden.
Yet given these factors I'll hazard that MS "sells" way more then free Linux. That when:
* Day to day operations such as browsing, checking email, listening to music, watching movies, ripping/writing CD's & DVD's is equally easy and intuitive, and to top it, safer and less resource intensive in Linux.
* Free office productivity tools such as Openoffice provide compatible document formats in addition to platform-independent document formats such as PDF.
* Every conceivable programming tool(s) such as language libraries, compilers, editors, RADs(Rapid Application Development), IDEs(Integrated Development Environments) are freely available.
* It is a known fact that GNU compilers for C/C++ etc are superior to their MS counterparts, while GNU libraries are less resource intensive and have lesser bugs and inherent exploits(which hackers use so often to bring a MS machine to its knees). Stuff like Perl, Python, Awk, Tcl/Tk are a boon to programmers no matter what they engage in.
* Oracle, PostGRE sql and even puny MySql servers(can run on Linux machines) outclass or match MS SQL servers.
Given the numerous advantages of Linux and the resources that are available, its a mystery why home users and offices in India continue and persist with MS and on the hand, shy away from Linux.
Finally, MS might be a blood sucker of an org, but at the end of the day its still a company on US soil, and there's no reason to believe that in the future when cyber warfare might become more of a reality than sci-fi, the US govt asks MS to send `security upgrades' to its machines wolrdwide or to a specific geographic zone, which crashes those machines or corrupts vital information. We must remember when IBM came up with their 128-bit DES(Data Encryption Standard) encryption system, NSA forced them to use a 56-bit encrypted key, `cause NSA didnt possess the computing power to break a 128-bit key. In this regard, China has already built a customised OS which it calls "Red Flag Linux"(modelled closely on the Red Hat Linux distribution) and it uses this in its govt installations.
Admittedly there are some points of hardware incompatibilities because the hardware manufacturers dont have enough reason to invest in compatibility with Linux systems, but within an increasing market for Linux, their indifference is bound to be temporary. In this regard there are numerous examples of companies in the US traditionally providing applications for windows machines which have now started shipping compatible softwares(drivers) for the Linux platform. From a personal perspective, I now use windows only to voice-chat on yahoo. On a day when I have to do no coding(or I dont do any programming), I dont have to even open the much feared command console!;-) Also considering the painless manner of customizing the OS to "carry" a host of languages such as hindi, urdu, tamil, teleugu, gujrati, marathi, bengali, punjabi & assamese from what I recall, a Linux based machine has the potential to truly reach the masses. This means a native person(say a maharashtrian) will be able to read the news, write email & chat in his local toungue, marathi. Linux has the ability to be configured at 7(or 5, I forgot) different security levels from "weak" to "paranoid", the last level making it ideal for military and govt use.
India has aped the world as far as technology is concerned for long. The advent of Gnu/Linux gives India a unique opportunity to surge ahead given the economic fillip and the strong-IT base we possess. Isnt it time the Indian IT ministry took marketing Linux much more seriously(if it all is considering at the moment)? Isnt it time that the Indian IT-whiz kids started doing some thinking of their own? Isnt it time that people(the educate class)rose from their idle states & shed their prejudices(and fears) to embrace something new? How does Pakistan figure in this regard?
posted by Vasishtha | 3:35 AM
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