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Linux Gaining Ground In India
GillBates0 writes "Yahoo/Reuters is reporting that Linux seems to be gaining over Microsoft in India. According to Red Hat, about 10 percent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004, up from nothing in January. Linux already drives India's National Stock Exchange, and the Government of India has been promoting open source lately."
oh please don't use the term "gaining ground". India already has border skirmishes with packistan; losing territory to a penguin is not something they'll appreciate!
This is interesting, especially with all the IT outsourcing to India that we have seen lately. Could mean for yet cheaper outsourcing costs here in the US- if people start using Red Hat at home, maybe they will want to use it at work.
let them spend the next 20 years trying to configure their linux config files.
the rest of us can then get our jobs back.
You can have a unique distro for each of their animal headed, multi-armed gods.
With so many Indians in the software industry already, maybe we will start seeing some more great open source software come from India.
Actually it was just a comment from Microsoft and not Reuters so I don't think Reuters should be chastized for this. A quote is a quote, whether it's truthful or not. This wasn't even a direct quote either, just noting what Microsoft has previously said. I don't think it's a bad thing that Reuters included it.
"According to Red Hat, about 10 percent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004"
And what percentage of the buyers of these computers will be just buying them to only to escape the Microsoft tax and then install a Windows bootleg?
I swear, piracy has to be the biggest threat to Linux in the developing world. Ironically, It's better for Microsoft if you steal their software than it is for you to install Linux.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
+0, Meh. Welcome to the flip side of the globalization that brings you cheap and plentiful consumer goods.
In any case, I think you're confusing the concept of " bastard Indians stole my job" with "motherfscking greedy employers decided to screw working Americans in order to add a few pennies to the bottom line". Why attack the pawns when the king is in plain view?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Just make sure to blame all those Indians working in Banaglore meat grinders for a quarter of US wages for your lack of a job. Whatever you do, dont blame American companies for your job loss. That would be unpatriotic!
I think the history repeats itself. Back in 1970s, IBM wanted to gain market for its mainframes in India.
But as we all know the Mainframe hardware, software and services costs lots of $$$.
So instead placing bets on a proprietory vendor with lots of money, the government officials decided to go without it.
This presented an opportunity for others. Indian companies like HCL licensed inexpensive Unix from AT&T, built their own hardware and modified the source code to run on their hardware.
All the universities and banks had modest computing power running on a version of Unix.
Students learnt Unix not OS 390 and it turned out that Unix is the future and mainframes were obsolete. We all now know why this is good for India.
The same thing happening now, instead of IBM substitute M$.
So lack of money can sometimes be advantageous.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, too little and too much wealth are not good for well-being of the society.
Here we have the typical, well-meaning but actually very ignorant, stereotype of Indians living in abject poverty, with no food...
Get informed: India is a huge country with a vast population. They cover the spectrum: sure, there are PLENTY of very poor Indians, but there are also loads of well-educated, well-paid, (by local standards) dare-one-say "happy" Indians.
Please don't make generalisations, particularly when they are wrong...!
Middle class, USA-style, or middle class India-style? (The difference being one is a touch more third-world than the US)
This question is completely irrelevant. If the Indians in question consider themselves to be comfortable and happy with their income, some of them will be able and willing to devote their free time to writing software for fun. Their actual standard of living doesn't matter; as long as they think it's good enough that they can afford leisure time, they'll take it. And if they're geek-inclined, that leisure will sometimes take the form of hacking code to give away.
Besides which, I'm sure you'd find if you visited that the Indian middle class is pretty comfortable by American standards as well. Smaller homes, maybe, perhaps one car instead of two, and maybe a few less gadgets, but they're far from starving, or having to work 16 hours a day seven days a week.
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