Linux becoming visible on desktops, Aug 05, 2007

The Penguin (named Tux) is finally making inroads as an operating system (OS) on desktops too. While it has an over 20 per cent market share when we speak of servers in India, the free OS called Linux has just around 5 per cent market share in the country when it comes to desktops – the lion’s share going to Microsoft Windows.

Open source major Red Hat Ireland is planning to acquire 40 per cent of the total equity in its sister concern, Red Hat India for which the latter has sought Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) approval.

Red Hat India Pvt Ltd has launched the Gujarati version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL), a Linux-based operating system.

Red Hat India, a provider of open source solutions has launched a Tamil version of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system in the city [Chennai] today.

Oracle and Dell announced a strategic alliance that will provide customers a one-stop solution and a single point of contact for computing requirements. This will benefit those companies that are contemplating a migration to the Linux operating system.

With the open source architecture of Linux finding greater acceptance by corporates and the government segment in the country, Red Hat India Private Limited is betting big on its India operations. It is at present examining various regions for setting up its development centre in the country. It already has a multi-language lab in Pune working on desktop applications.

Javed Tapia, director of Red Hat India Private Limited, said here yesterday that the company would focus on spreading its reach in the country and popularising its desktop applications for the individuals and small office home office (Soho) segment. He said the company would also be doubling the number of its channel partners and training partners during the year. At present, it has 50 channel partners and 65 training partners.

Information technology industry watcher MAIT has predicted that within five years, nearly 50 per cent of the software infrastructure could be taken up by open source software.

According to MAIT, the open source software position will grow the fastest among small servers and its penetration will grow from its near-zero position in large servers and corporate desktops to become a viable option within 2-3 years.