NEW DELHI: LinuxAsia 2006, Asia's premier Open Source conference and exposition, is being held in New Delhi on February 8-10, 2006. Dr. Deepak Phatak, Nilekani Chair Professor at IIT, Mumbai, will inaugurate the convention.

Linux and Open Source Software are changing the map of IT in India and the world. Indian industry, education and government are all discovering high-quality, affordable computing solutions based on Open Source. Open Source solutions are being built on all of India's major languages and are cost-effectively meeting a broad range of economic and social needs.

The inaugural keynote will be delivered by Dr. Deepak Phatak of IIT, Mumbai. Dr. Phatak is a leading educator and advisor to Indian and International government and industry. His simple message is that true knowledge must be built by sharing information and tools where affordable information technology based on Open Source Software and methods is the key for bringing this vision to the common man.

Other eminent personalities presenting views and chairing discussions include the dynamic Mark Shuttleworth, Linux Pioneer and Guru, the first African cosmonaut and the "benevolent dictator" behind Ubuntu, which is the most popular Linux distribution in the world today. Klaus Knopper, creator of Knoppix, the landmark live distribution version of Linux will be presenting his knowledge and secrets of live Linux, in his first ever visit to this country. Speakers from Telecom, Government, Education, Small and Medium Enterprise, Financial Services, IT & ITES, and media will form the various discussion panels at the different sessions.

The overall conference theme for LinuxAsia 2006 is "The Customer Speaks"; with sessions that highlight what a customer wants to know about easy-to-use, virus-free desktops, high-performance clusters, data and application migration, wireless computing, scalable storage, focusing on the best practices and collaboration; in keeping with the spirit of the Linux/OSS community. IT products and services majors like Oracle, Dell, Intel, HP, IBM, RedHat, CDAC and several others will be showing their Linux-based solutions and service platforms.

2000 or more visitors and delegates from Corporate, IT, government, academic and student communities are expected at the convention. According to Alolita Sharma, CEO Technetra, the organisation behind the annual event, "The LinuxAsia initiative has been gaining strength from year to year. This year, LinuxAsia 2006 brings into focus the ground that Linux is gaining among all segments. We are expecting speakers and delegates from the US, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UK, Germany, Sweden, China, and many other places which truly makes it the premier open source conference in this part of the world."

A first time feature of this year is the gov.in pavilion with central and state govt bodies showcasing eGovernance open source solutions. The conference sessions, to proceed along parallel tracks with industry sessions, the e-Governance Forum, Technology Forum, Education Forum and Tech-Days devoted to different major Linux distributions. On high-performance computing, challenges for open source in financial services, telecom, education, etc.

The three-day conference includes a gala event at which the LFY Readers' Choice Awards will be presented in various categories that include favourites selected from the industry in categories like OSS services company, OSS distribution, database, desktop environment, web browser and others, as well as several OSS-friendly hardware categories. Honorary awards will be presented for the favourites among OSS Employers, OSS Supporters, Linux/OSS User Groups etc.