Open Source Software and Growth of Linux: The Indian Perspective

Information technology is currently a major concern of developing countries.It is a technology vital for development but the cost is high and implementation is not easily achieved. A related issue, which few developing countries are fully confronted, is that of copyright and illegal copying of software. Complying with international standards means ending widespread copying of software endemic in most developing countries and the prospect of very high and recurrent software costs. Other problematic issues are security and virus problems. A recent development, which is attracting much interest, especially in developing countries, is that of open source software (OSS) and the Linux operating system (OS) in particular. This type of software goes a long way in helping to resolve such issues. In OSS the source code (human readable set of instructions which makes a software) is distributed along with the executable form (the computer readable set of instruction which makes a software, also known as compiled form of a computer software). Once software has been ‘compiled’ into a computer readable form, it is practically impossible to understand the internal functioning of it. It is also not possible to modify it. All commercial software companies distribute their software products in compiled form. By doing so they gain monopoly on improving their software by adding features or fixing bugs. This power encourages them to behave the way monopolists often do: bugs do not get fixed unless this brings a profit, and upgrades become expensive. By following this practice these companies have gained a monopolistic market share of the strategic system and application software for personal computers. Their strategy is described as one that has included predatory pricing (cutting prices to drive rivals out of business); cross-subsidies (using one part of a large company to underwrite loss-making activities in another); and technological predation (using inside knowledge of the operating system to make rival’s software run badly). One example of this is the ‘browsers war’, (the rivalry between Microsoft and Netscape to capture internet browsers market). In this Microsoft was at advantage since it controlled the source code of Windows and both Internet Explorer and Netscape had to run under Microsoft Windows. These strategies adopted by commercial software companies, has given rise to unhealthy dependence on proprietary software, huge expenditure on licensing fee, growth of gray market in pirated software, troublesome environment in local software industries and most importantly discouraged innovation in the software industry at global level. The freedom of research and development offered by OSS has to be understood against this background.

India’s Contribution to Linux Development

Indian contribution to the development of Linux has been very low so far. In fact no Asian country—apart from Japan and Korea—really contribute to the development of Linux. The reason for low Indian contribution is low internet penetration in India. The biggest developer base consists of students from universities and colleges but in the absence of decent internet link they are not able to get in touch with the open source community engaged in development of Linux. Though there are some efforts put in by enterprises like Pacific Hitech, GT Enterprise C&B Consulting (Banglore) & HCL, but people in India have been consumers of the efforts of others. As the internet connectivity in schools and colleges improves, more and more students - who are the primary source of innovation - would start contributing to the Linux effort in India. However a non-profit organisation known as Linux-India.org has been set up to foster Linux growth in India. The group includes engineers, corporate users, consultants, journalists and normal computer users as well. It has got its centers in almost every Indian city working to promote Linux. It organises workshops and seminars to disseminate information about Linux. Indian software developers engaged in developing OSS can also post their software at this platform. The IBM Linux Development Center in Bangalore - one among only seven such IBM facilities worldwide - supports business partners and independent software vendors across the Asian and South Asia regions. The center brings key IBM enterprise-class strengths to Linux, especially in areas such as reliability, availability and serviceability, clustering, file journaling systems, etc.

With this

Yours Friend

Sudarshan Singh