Support will bring in revenues for Linux

Vinita Suvarna-Bhatia

MUMBAI: The hardware industry had long since learnt that support and service

will spell its success or failure. Now it is the turn of the software industry

to do the same. Red Hat India, which made its foray into the Indian market

barely two months ago, will concentrate on support to keep the customers coming.

This will be in terms of annual maintenance for a small fee.

Talking about this thrust for support, Red Hat Channels Head-India Ajay

Kapoor says, "The foremost thing about Linux is support. I can sell

thousands of boxes in a year, but if I do not provide support, the product is

evidently going to fail."

Currently, Red Hat has four technicians in the country and will soon increase

its service network as more and more queries come in. Kapoor says that talks are

underway with leading PC manufacturers in India for bundling Linux with the

machines. This will be in the form of a dual-boot, where the HDD will house both

Windows and Linux OS and user will have the option of running applications on

either OS.

"We are talking of all kinds of machines, including desktops, high-end

servers as well as home PCs. The OEMs are opting for a new technology. They are

not scraping Windows as an OS, but instead they are giving an option. They are

parting the hard disk, and people will still be able to use Windows," says

Kapoor. The first offer should hit the market by February-end. Red Hat will

provide after-sales support directly to OEMs for this purpose. Acer has already

launched the AcerMate with Linux as its resident OS. Red Hat will also set up

one Red Hat training center and tie up with education franchisees to incorporate

Linux in their curriculum. "Today if there are one lakh computer training

institutes in the country, then all of them will teach Microsoft. Now we want to

educate our customers about using Linux too," says Ajay.

When users buy Linux, they will get a list of registered Red Hat centers in

the country, which will help them get acquainted with the OS. Kapoor also plans

to talk to various educational institutes like the IIT, to deploy Linux at their

terminals to acquaint students to the OS. Red Hat currently has two distributors

in the country, Integra and GT Electronics. The company is adding one more

distributor to this list by the beginning of March.