The Indian Summer of Linux

In recent weeks attention has focused on rapidly growing markets in the developing world where the relative absence of legacy computing systems, makes the choice more interesting. India is on the radar of dozens of software service providers, waiting and watching, which way large spenders will jump. And the media has caught on to the excitement:

`Linux spreads its wings in India' reported Business Week earlier this month, with Nandini Lakshman reporting that eight state governments here have put their treasury operations on Linux systems, while Maharashtra is fuelling its revamped health care system on Open Source systems.

Pankaj Mishra writes in the September 30 issue of CTO Forum that 18 of 28 Indian states have embraced Linux in some form or are running pilot e-governance schemes.

The `Open Source Symposium' and Red Hat Developer Day on successive days in Bangalore last week, provided another opportunity to assess to what extent the Penguin's Progress across India is the unstoppable march many watchers seem to suggest.More>>