"Linux does not depend on Microsoft’s failure"

CHENNAI: Ever since it emerged from the development casing, Linux was talked about. Unfortunately, its adoption did not pick as expected and it was only during the 1990’s after Red Hat created its distribution for Linux that open source started making inroad. The company’s 3A program–awareness, appreciation and adoption–certainly proved one of the key success factors that lead to wide spread adoption of Linux today.

In a tête-à-tête with CyberMedia’s Nisha Kurian, the Red Hat India head for enterprise sales Sachin Dabir explained how Linux emerged from being a push product to a pull product. Excerpts:

What is happening on the Linux front in India? Do we see a growing acceptance here?

When Red Hat started operation in India we were merely six people. Today, we are a 46-people company. For the past two years, we have been primarily educating people here on the benefits and availability of Red Hat Linux in India. The awareness towards open source is dramatically growing, something that can be judged by the fact that the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam himself said that India should make use of open source. Today we are selling 12,000 servers per year in the country. Some of the major projects bagged by us in the country comes from Haldia Dock Complex, Central Bank of India, LIC, Madhya Pradesh Treasuries Department, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, Kothak Bank etc.

With the open source code and the software available at a lower price, don’t you feel that Linux should have made even a faster penetration especially in the home segment?Besides, the lower cost should have helped tackle piracy.

I can’t precisely comment on why this piracy is happening, but I can surely say that Linux is reaching homes, office and the government sectors in a major way. This is where we find lower cost of ownership, lower TCO and hassle free operation. If you look into our product, a user working on Windows will not find any difficulty in working on Linux. We reached this stage in two years time whereas it took 15 years for Windows to reach where it is, now. Though in India, we sold nearly two lakh desktops last year, we feel that in the home segment it will take at least two years for us to make a big mark. But we are growing at 100 percent and will continue to grow like that.

In that case, when do you see Linux emerging as a real threat to Microsoft?

Our success doesn’t depend on their failure. But our model is to create more user base, which in turn will help to increase the market. If Linux is growing, it is helping to grow IT. We are currently working to strengthen the ecosystem that delivers the solution. The government sector has shown great amount of readiness to support Linux. Their projects are large but have budget constraints. Even they are worried about security. Linux addresses all these gaps and provides control, security and flexibility.

What are your plans for India?

Today, India is ready for Linux and we are highly optimistic. All the major vendors and application vendors, have their products certified on Linux, which itself is proof that Linux is growing.

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