The IT world is in its infancy. The excitement and promise of its youth is pervasive and irrepressible. Pressure for automating even the most common information and activities is rising exponentially. But the early atmosphere of IT is still a little heavy with proprietary elements and not yet suitable for the full blossoming of life. However, just as the demands of life changed Earth’s early atmosphere, demands for cost-effective automation are changing the atmosphere of IT. The IT world is at the beginning of an explosion of biological activity and oxygen is just starting to be produced. OSS is that oxygen and its concentration in the atmosphere of IT will keep growing and growing.

For example, the efforts of projects like gnuLinEx are beginning to pump oxygen into the changing atmosphere of IT. gnuLinEx is a government-sponsored modernization and information access program spearheaded by the province of Extremadura, Spain. gnuLinEx has been an inspiration for other automation outreach projects in regions around the world. Now in its third year, it has been transformed from the efforts of a single province to a project in collaboration with its much larger neighbor, the province of Andalusia. These IT enablement projects have spawned an indigenous service industry and have incubated an entire regional ecosystem of OSS applications and support.

Despite successes of general computing in places like Extremadura and Andalusia, there is a common belief among even the biggest players in open source, that OSS remains better suited for enterprise and controlled computing roles where the variety of hardware and devices, especially peripherals, can be carefully managed. In this view, OSS currently favors niche environments. After all, it’s only the beginning of life here on Planet IT. Fortunately, OSS excels at performing basic, well-defined and transactional tasks with predefined hardware. For example, Linux is being adopted for transaction workers in call centers, banks and other work environments that require only one or two computer functions. And with an infinite ability to customize itself, OSS may well adapt itself into an endless variety and quantity of specialized habitats. A niche here, a niche there and pretty soon its the whole ecosystem!

It is the transformation of these niches into a larger ecology that is convincing companies and governments of all sizes to invest in projects that generate products, services and support for the OSS ecosystem. Ecosystem investment is essential for real market growth. Even moderate investment will create a business cycle that produces new products and services for an OSS market that in turn creates demand for further products and services. As this business cycle progresses, and the OSS ecosystem grows and matures, the suitability of open source for all computing tasks, including fully empowered desktops and other general computing environments, will become accepted by all players.

Just as Earth’s biological cycle uses oxygen to fuel the business of life, an evolving cycle of cost-effective automation will use OSS to fuel the business of IT. As the concentration and quality of OSS in IT increases, the benefits of automation will become accessible for all of us – on your desktop and mine and in all the appliances that surround us.

Matthew J. Szulik, chairman, CEO, and president, Red Hat Inc., has been leading small start-ups in emerging technologies, such as Interleaf, MapInfo, and Red Hat, into global, publicly traded firms for more than 20 years. In 1998, Szulik and Red Hat founder Bob Young shared a vision that the collaborative approach of open source, along with a great brand, could redistribute the economics of the technology industry from the vendor to the customer.

Matthew Szulik, CEO, Red Hat

During Matt Szulik’s visit to New Delhi’s LinuxAsia 2005 in early February, technologist Alolita Sharma caught up with him and he agreed to an e-mail interview, which was published by Alolita in the March 2005 issue of Linux For You magazine. Matt covered a range of issues, emphasizing Red Hat’s unwavering commitment to support the open source community.

Q: Getting clients to adopt Linux on their servers is easier than convincing them to switch on the desktop. What is Red Hat’s strategy for getting organizations to switch? Will the same strategy work in India as in Indianapolis?

MS: Red Hat’s desktop strategy centres around solving customer problems experienced in the areas of manageability and security. Enterprise customers are increasingly showing interest in deploying a corporate desktop that is affordable and solves these issues. We have seen that the issues of systems manageability, security and cost are global issues.

Q: Some see SCO as the undying, if unwitting, friend of the open source community because it has forced OSS to organize and become more professional in facing its challenges. What is Red Hat’s view?

“The passion shown for open source and innovation in India is especially heartening for me to see”

MS: Red Hat works with the community every day to improve the collaborative process that will continue to outpace proprietary companies in the area of innovation. We have proved that Linux is a professionally delivered, highly reliable platform. As Linux adoption continues to broaden, we expect the competition and attention to increase.

Q: You are well regarded across the world for successfully mixing “social responsibility” with “shareholder responsibility”. What advice do you have for others who wish to create successful businesses out of OSS?

MS: Stay true to your beliefs. I was asked years ago, “When are you going to give up this open source gimmick?” Red Hat has not wavered in its commitment to open source.

Q: Education is one of your personal and company’s priorities. How can OSS boost education and deliver the benefits of knowledge in developing economies, especially in the non-English speaking world?

MS: Open source is accessible. It is truly a platform conceived and built on the Internet. Open source promotes the sharing of ideas and the idea of coming together to improve technology. Versions of Red Hat are now available in 15 languages.

Q: Many school systems in India and around the world actively exclude OSS from their curricula because they believe students must be prepared for jobs in an economy dominated by Microsoft — even if the Microsoft product space in developing economies is dominated by piracy. How can all of us help in promoting open source for our children?

MS: I believe people should learn the value of choice, and how choice can put power in the hands of the consumer for better technology and better service.

Q: Red Hat Network is your company’s value proposition to help large and small enterprises cost-effectively manage their computing resources. How can services such as Red Hat Network evolve to meet the needs of different customers in different countries, across different languages, economies, and cultures?

MS: Red Hat Network is globally an effective tool for managing systems, regardless of whether you have 10 or 10,000. Consistently managing systems is the key for best security practices and, ultimately, cost savings.

Q: Red Hat has said it is building a patent portfolio as a defense fund for OSS. Can Red Hat take a stronger stand? For example, IBM has committed 500 of its software patents for free use by the OSS community and at the same time threatened to withdraw permission for use from anyone litigating against the OSS community. Why are software patents such a menace? How can the problems of Intellectual Property best be addressed?

MS: All of the software packages available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are freely available to the community. We commend IBM for making this large contribution as well. Software patents symbolize the owning of innovation to some companies. Red Hat is developing a software patent portfolio for the reverse reason — to foster and encourage collaborative work.

Q: What are the grand challenges for Linux and OSS in the next five years?

MS: Linux will continue to face fierce competition as market penetration deepens over the next five years.

Q: As Linux becomes adapted to more environments, from embedded systems to mainframes, and is localized for Asia and other global regions, how can Linux avoid complexity and bloat or, even worse, fragmentation?

MS: Linux has been chosen as a standard platform from device to data center by many enterprise customers because of its common code base. A common code base unifies the systems in an infrastructure and creates great integration and compatibility.

Q: To keep the OSS software ecosystem in manageable harmony, what are the different roles of the different players with different agendas? For example, how do foundations and consortia such as FSF, Mozilla or OSDL, vendors such as Red Hat and Novell, and community luminaries such as Linus Torvalds or Matthew Szulik complement or compete with each other?

MS: The individuals and groups must be segmented according to their commitment to open source and open standards versus mixed or proprietary models. The open source community, comprised of many organizations and individuals, has thrived from working together.

Q: Do you have a message for India on open source?

MS: I am always inspired when I visit India and speak to university students, developers and professionals who have a real love for technology. The passion shown for open source and innovation in India is especially heartening for me to see. This is what moves technology.

In these early days of economic rebound in Silicon Valley, you can’t help but notice the return of a constant stream of airplanes buzzing in and out of San Francisco International. In the beginning of February, you also could hear the buzz of the top pilots of open source at OSDL’s Enterprise Linux Summit held in Burlingame, practically on top of the runway. Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton, Brian Behlendorf, Mitch Kapor, and others, were all there to convey how Linux and open source are ready for supersonic flight in IT.

The highlight of the summit was the keynote panel featuring open conversations with Torvalds and Morton — maintainers of the 2.6 kernel, Behlendorf — chief of Apache, and Kapor — head of the OSA foundation and inventor of Lotus 123. Each addressed, from their own perspectives, the fast-paced adoption of Linux and Open Source in the enterprise.

Torvalds emphasized the need for open standards to demand open source reference implementations so that companies are compelled to adhere to, implement and contribute to those standards. Successful open source projects can also form the basis for open standards. Commenting on software patents, Torvalds asserted that patents are as harmful for open source as they are for proprietary software. The fact that IBM, Sun and others, are granting patents to the OSS community, was welcomed by Torvalds as a step in the right direction. Not surprisingly, he didn’t expect Microsoft to follow this buzz. But count him out for grand visions. Torvalds claims to be the Anti-Visionary of OSS (for now). He refuses to hazard predictions — he merely wants ‘to fix things today, tomorrow and every day’ and, in his own practical way, make Linux better and better.

Lacking the reserve of his distinguished colleague, Morton bluntly put forth that ‘open source is inevitable’.

Behlendorf reinforced Torvalds’ view that open standards must be maintained and that open standards and open source are synonymous. He added that just like the development of open standards, OSS development thrives by consensus and contributions. His own project Apache is one of the OSS world’s shining examples. And like success in biological systems, success in OSS will be determined by ’survival of the fittest’ in a market driven, global economy.

Kapor sees open source as a force that can move the immovable. Citing the success of Wikipedia, he described open source as a decentralized, self-assembling system of unlimited potential. He also went into why patents are bad for software. Currently the patent process has deteriorated to the point where thousands of patents have been issued in the last 15 years, without reference to prior rules by the US Patent Office. The result has been a lethal stockpile of toxic patents waiting to explode. Kapor reiterated the call for immediate patent reform and expressed concern that Microsoft, in a desperate last stand, could use its own version of a “patent Bhopal” as a weapon of mass destruction.

Sessions on open source licensing and discussions about SCO’s doomed litigation were popular. Larry Rosen, a leading attorney on licensing, talked about too many variations of OSS licences being ratified by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The proliferation of licences is causing confusion in the global OSS community as well as promoting islands of OSS development due to incompatible licences impairing code sharing across the federation of OSS projects.

OSDL’s Enterprise Linux Summit offered a gallery of snapshots from the cockpits of today’s OSS leadership. Some snapshots pointed to the sky above, while others focused closer to the ground. But from every vantage point, the pictures show progress and the promise of even higher-speed travel ahead.

The hills of Pune everywhere reflect Chhatrapati Shivaji’s heroic battles for freedom. Following Shivaji’s tradition, Pune’s Symbiosis held its 3rd annual software freedom fest “GNUnify 2005“. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) was the call to arms.

Pune, home of GNUnify

The 3-day event from February 13th-15th was organized by students and faculty of the Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR). All aspects of the festival demonstrated the strengths of FOSS — freedom, collaboration, enthusiasm, learning cool technologies and using open source software to build IT infrastructure. The Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG) and extended Pune IT community joined in to make the event a success. The event was open to all and had packed sessions with more than 500 attendees over the three days.

The first day focused on “Linux Eduvantage” — a half day program designed to create awareness among high school students and teachers. Presentations highlighting the advantages of FOSS in education were conducted keeping in mind principals, teachers and students. Mrs. Kanvinde, Director SICSR, started the day with the welcome address and talks topics included demonstration of various FOSS tools as well as discussion on how FOSS can be best used for school education.

Brian Behlendorf

The second day brought a flurry of parallel sessions with a Linux Install Fest being conducted simultaneously with a technology track and hands-on workshops. The install fest featured installation of various flavors of Linux with expert guidance by members of the Pune Linux Users Group and enthusiastic learners. The “techie talks” covered topics such as Mono, Ruby, Subversion, Eclipse, PostgreSQL, Zope, Python, OpenSSL, Evolution, CoLinux, embedded databases, data serialization using XML, Unicode, localization projects and more. The workshops on PHP 5, Python, Web Development using FOSS tools, and Mono were also popular with the attendees.

Like last year, GNUnify’s third day highlighted issues related to FOSS faced by industry and government today. The seminar was inaugurated by Symbiosis founder, Dr. S.B.Mujumdar, who was recently conferred India’s top honor — the ‘Padmashree’ award by the President of India. The program highlighted top open source gurus such as Brian Behlendorf, Apache guru and CTO CollabNet, David Axmark, Co-Founder MySQL, Shrikant Navelkar, GM Clover Technologies, Robert Adkins, CTO Technetra, Danese Cooper, Board Member OSI, and Alolita Sharma, CEO Technetra.

Dr. S.B. Mujumdar

These experts talked about a range of topics from applying open source best practices in enterprise software development, MySQL best practices in enterprise software development, MySQL features and upcoming enhancements to the state of OSS in India, challenges in adoption of OSS in India and guerrilla warfare using FOSS. The talks were well attended and the audience had many questions in lively interactive sessions throughout the day.

GNUnify 2005 provided a great forum for open minds. It brought together the enthusiastic student community of Pune, many IT professionals from all across India and the global open source gurus. We look forward to GNUnify 2006!

LinuxAsia 2005 Conference & Expo
February 9-11, 2005
India Habitat Center
New Delhi, India

For developers, CEOs and top government officials alike, LinuxAsia 2005 provided an unparalleled chance to meet, network with and listen to those most passionate about Linux and open source software. The world’s leading Linux evangelists were there and the crowds loved it.

The theme of the conference, ‘Linux Rocks’ drove home the fact that Linux and open source are a pervasive force in the emerging Asian market. And the three day event, from February 9th to 11th 2005, held in New Delhi, underscored the point. It had it all — from brainstorming sessions, live demonstrations in workshops, expositions, to the CEO Lunch and the Penguin party. So the theme did rock!

The CEO Lunch

The LinuxAsia CEO Lunch intermingled the who’s who in the Linux and Open Source world together with IT decision makers from the Indian subcontinent. Customers, vendors, academic and technology gurus, industry leaders and government policy makers met, networked and enjoyed a crisp Indian winter day with a gourmet lunch by the pool.

Attendees at the CEO lunch included Dr. Deepak Phatak of IIT Mumbai, R. Dhamodaran, IBM India, Matthew Szulik, CEO, Red Hat, Juergen Geck, CTO, Novell SuSE, David Axmark, CTO, MySQL, Louis Suarez-Potts, Community Manager, OpenOffice.org, Barry Duplantis, VP, Red Hat, Javed Tapia, Managing Director, Red Hat India, Kate Johnson, VP, Red Hat, Sachin Dabir, Head Sales, Red Hat India, Amit Bhoraskar, Red Hat India, Ashit Panjwani, Head Marketing, Onward Novell India, Shrikant Patil, Country Manager, Intel, Rajeev Borah, Country Manager, HPC, Intel India, Valsa Williams, Country Manager, E-Government Initiatives, Intel India, N. Seetharama Krishna, CDAC Pune, N. Mohan Ram, CDAC Pune, R.K. Verma, CDAC Noida, Danese Cooper, Board Member, OSI and many more from the industry.

VIP customers and guests included Mr. Sen, Air Vice Marshal, Directorate of IT, Indian Air Force, Mr. Harikrishnan, Dy. DG, Directorate of Shipping, Mumbai, Mr. Kumar, Addl Director, Dept of Information Technology, Ms. Lata, Addl. Director, Dept of Information Technology, Muthu Kumar, GM IT, Moser Baer India, Mr. Agarwal, Election Commissioner, Mr. Lubal, Dy. GM, MSRTC, Mumbai, Mr. Uppal, GM IT, Maruti Udyog Ltd, Mr. Lalithmuana, Dy. Secretary, Govt. of Mizoram, Matt Szulik, Red Hat CEO, Dinesh Kumar, GM, NTPC, P.C. Jose, GM, NHPC, Dr. K. Subramanium, Deputy DG, NIC, S.K. Sharma, GM IT, Oriental Bank, Alex Santo, CTO, Paprikaas Animation Studios, Sri Lanka, Yugal Sharma, Country Manager, Polycom (UK) Ltd., Rahul Goswami, CIO, Ranbaxy Labs Ltd, Alok Gupta, IT, Punjab National Bank, S. Narasimhan, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, Sudip Neogi, IT Head, Sahara India, Sharad Srivastav, Country Head, Seagate Distribution Singapore, Megha Chaitanya, Project Manager, ST Microelectronics, Sudhir Saxena, CEO, TCIL BellSouth Ltd., Rakesh Tirath, GM, Tata Infotech Ltd, Mr. Anand, TERI, H.R. Mohan, Chief Systems Manager, The Hindu, K.G. Agarwal, Chief IT, Triveni Glass Ltd, Vijay Wadhawan, Regional Sales Manager, Tyco Electronics Corp. India Ltd., Dr. Sanath Jayasena, Dean, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, Mr. Mukhopadhyay, CM Computerization Dept, Union Bank of India, Mr. Ashok, Sq Leader, Western Air Command, S.K. Singh, Western Air Command and many others.

The Penguin Party

The Penguin Party held on the first day of LinuxAsia was an occasion to network with peers and leaders from industry, government and academia. The party blended business with fun and good food for all and was the platform for presenting the LFY Readers’ Choice Awards.

LFY Readers’ Choice Awards

The biggest attraction of the Penguin Party was LFY Readers’ Choice Awards. The nominees for LFY Readers’ Choice Awards 2005 were suggested by the readers of LINUX For You, the extended Linux community from industry, government and academia and was vetted by a panel of Linux and OSS industry experts. LFY was not a part of this panel.

Industry Awards

The winners in the Linux and Open Source Industry awards categories were:

• Most Popular Linux Training Initiative in India: Red Hat
• Most Popular Indian Linux Distribution: Fedora Core/Red Hat
• Most Popular Linux/OSS Services Company: Red Hat
• Most Popular OSS Web Browser: Firefox
• Most Popular Linux/OSS Database: MySQL
• Most Popular Linux Desktop Brand: HP
• Most Popular Linux Server: IBM
• Most Popular Linux-friendly Laptop: IBM
• Most Popular Linux-friendly Laser Printer: HP
• Most Popular Linux-friendly Inkjet Printer: HP
• Most Popular Linux-friendly Scanner: HP
• Most Popular Linux-friendly Digital Camera: Sony

Honorary Awards

• Most Popular Linux Supporter: CDAC
• Most Popular Indian Linux/OSS Employer: Red Hat
• Most Popular Indian OSS Project: Anjuta & IndLinux
• Most Popular Indian Linux User Group: Bangalore LUG

Workshops

LinuxAsia 2005 held workshops on popular Linux and open source topics. The workshops covered migrating to Linux, using open source development and collaborative tools in a hands on environment, and building a high performance 64-bit computing platform. These workshops provided a classroom setting for collaborative learning and the opportunity to discuss and experience the power of latest Linux based technologies.

The three workshops that were held on each of the three days were:

• Building a 64-bit Echo System, Manoj David, Server Alliance Manager, AMD
• Migrating to Linux Made Easy, Biswajit Banerjee, Director, Tetra
• Subversion: Software Version Control Done Right, V.K. Sameer CollabNet, Chennai

Linux Users Group Day

LinuxAsia 2005 held a Linux Users Group Day on February 11, 2005 where the Delhi Linux Users Group hosted well known community speakers including Kishor Bhargavaa, CEO, Linkaxis, Sudev Barar, VP, Nuchem, Dr. Ajay Shah, Consultant, Ministry of Finance and others who presented talks on a variety of hot topics ranging from software patents to LTSP to a full audience. Linux and OSS demonstrations were presented on localization, LTSP, live CD solutions and more.

The Conference and Star Speakers

R. Dhamodaran, Country Executive, SWG, IBM India — In his inaugural address, Mr. Dhamodaran, welcomed the “august gathering” of like-minded participants and the opportunity for all to learn from one another. Mr. Dhamodaran reinforced IBM’s pledge to help build an open standards ecosystem in India, as well as globally. He noted that IBM was setting up and funding Linux competency and resource centers, and continues to cofund initiatives to support customers and partners build application solutions in OSS. He highlighted IBM’s dedication of 500 patents to the OSS community to foster continued innovation. Mr. Dhamodaran encouraged all conference participants to imagine the unprecedented energy and enthusiasm possible from the diverse cultures represented by open source.

Matthew Szulik, CEO, Red Hat — discussed methods of building up a business model around the GNU Public License (GPL).

Dr. Deepak Phatak, Nilekani Chair Professor, Kanwal Rekhi School of Engineering, IIT Mumbai — His keynote addressed one of the hottest topics in Asia today — the use of open source software in developing economies. Dr. Phatak highlighted the barriers to adoption of open source software in developing countries such as India.

David Axmark, Cofounder, MySQL — talked about how his company grew to its present stature, using the GPL license.

Juergen Geck, CTO, Novell SUSE — discussed how and why open source can be a great business model.

Shrikant Patil, Director - Solutions Group, Intel — talked about how Intel and Linux together provide a stable value proposition and a platform of choice.

Brian Behlendorf, Apache Guru and Co-founder of CollabNet — talked on how a proprietary company can learn from the open source community from the way they build up a particular project.

Jyothi Satyanathan, Country Manager, Power Series, IBM India — was very upbeat on the way Linux business is catching up across the world, especially in the government sector. Citing India, he noted, “the state governments of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Delhi and government agencies like CDAC and National Informatics Centre (NIC) are all embracing Linux in a big way. I think it is only a matter of time when Linux will be the standard operating system in South Asia.”

Danese Cooper, Board Member, Open Source Initiative (OSI) — She talked about how the fundamental features of the open source model at times clash with the interests of proprietary companies. She suggested a midway approach to balance out both models.

V.G. Sundar Ram, Head — Technology Solutions Group, Oracle India — presented Oracle’s vision on grid computing and the important role of Linux in that vision. He stated, “we try to address the issue of grid computing from the software side, and hence open source plays a big role in our strategy.”

The Expo

IT Expos are always a good place to check out the latest technologies and network with industry peers. LinuxAsia’s expo this year pulled in top leaders in the IT industry showcasing their latest Linux oriented products, services and solutions.

Exhibitors

IBM, Intel, Onward Novell, Red Hat, CDAC, Sundyne Technologies, BakBone Software, SNIA India, Oracle (through its partners), Wipro Infotech, Cognizant, HCL Infosystems, Tetra Information Services, Integra Microsystems, Corazio, Mithi, CMC, New Horizons, SlashSupport, Belzabar, Cadence, Path Infotech, Mahan Computer Systems, EFY

Sponsors

• IBM - Diamond Sponsor
• Novell - Platinum Sponsor
• Intel - Platinum Sponsor
• Red Hat - CXO Sponsor
• CDAC - HPC & Grid Computing: Government Sponsor
• Oracle - HPC & Grid Computing: Industry Sponsor
• Virtusa - Information Management: Industry Sponsor
• Sundyne Technologies - Registration Sponsor
• Bakbone Software - Storage: Industry Sponsor
• SNIAIndia - Storage: Industry Association sponsor
• Cadence - Student Sponsor

Patrons

• CollabNet
• MySQL
• OpenOffice.org
• JBoss
• Tetra Information Services
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• Delhi Linux Users Group

Visitors and Delegates

Visitor and delegate attendance at LinuxAsia 2005 was 2,245 over 3 days.

Visitor/Delegate Attendance

• Industry Customers: 59%
• Linux/Open Source Community: 41%