BANGALORE: India’s largest event on Linux, "Linux Bangalore-2001" held here on December 10, 11, and 12, has been made an annual event by the organizers -- Bangalore Linux User Group (BLUG).

This is the first time such an event is being held independently by BLUG, with about 2,500 Linux users participating in the seminar. BLUG has a registered user base of 1,500 professionals, making them the largest user group in the country. It expects to touch 2000 by December 31, 2001, thanks to the event.

Coordinator of the event, Mahendran, said, "We have become the largest LUG (Linux User Group) in the country, recently overtaking the Pune LUG. We had earlier been participating in other events exhibiting our strength. After some feedback from our group members, we decided to hold an event, presenting as a platform for all the user groups in Bangalore city. It has been a great success as we expected 1,500 professionals participating, but ended up with 1,000 more. It has been a overwhelming response and was unanimously decided to make this event an annual affair."

The event also has the distinction of more than 27 per cent of the participating delegates from outside the city, such as Chennai, Goa, Pune, etc.

Technical issues on Linux were discussed and sorted out, the status of Linux in the market and the future of the OS were also discussed. HP-ISO vice president M S Subramanya said, "The current status of Linux in the market place is that it is significantly penetrating in to the mainstream applications of the enterprise sector. The future for Linux lies in pervasive computing, into servers and super computers. The market is also talking about secure Linux. Embedded Linux, which is a driver of pervasive computing, is being developed in a big way. Companies like HP, IBM and Wipro are involved in the developments."

The event also generated specific objectives such as offering training to the corporates in the city. "Localization of the Linux OS in Indian languages is another topic which was discussed extensively during this event. Encouraging students to do projects in Linux open source is another initiative that BLUG has engaged itself in," added Mahendran.

With much support from companies like HP, Wipro and IBM, and the developer community in India, Linux is all set to become the popular OS.