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Indian FOSS Evangelist Atul Chitnis Dead At 51
New submitter knwny writes "Atul Chitnis, the man who popularized open software in India, died on 3rd June of intestinal cancer. As a technology mentor, writer and public speaker he promoted Linux and FOSS since the late 1980s through his association with various tech magazines and conferences. He introduced Linux to thousands of PC Quest magazine readers by convincing them to carry the first ever Linux distribution in India on its cover CD in 1996."
Thank you Atul.
You were a great influence to Indian CS graduates.
I got introduced to Linux because of you when you gave out Free Slackware CDs.
Internet Connectivity in India, especially in academic institutions, was too slow to download anything significant.
You made it easy for our institution (NIT) to switch over to Linux.
You will be missed.
may his soul rest in peace!
I started using Linux before I got internet or was in a university. I wouldn't have started on Linux (and eventually interned at FSF India) if not for those streams of CDs that were available for a very expensive 100rs (approx 3$ back then).
This wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of toolz. And several others who were behind the curtain (I remember calling up the Digit phone # to ask for help with my i810 video card).
The result was a grass-roots up linux community that sprung up all over India, out of curiousity and tolerating lots of lost partitions.
Both toolz & OldMonk, linux-india old-timers recently lost to us, will not be forgotten (at least by me).
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Promoting Linux since the late 80's, eh? Somebody better warn Linus that he's a plagiarist, then!
He was also responsible for promoting Java in the early 80s and dotNet in the 90s.
I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
As someone who grew up reading your articles, I remember very well your contribution to my interest in PCs, hardware and eventually linux. Too bad and too young to die. RIP Atul.
Is my new sig. RIP Atul.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
I got introduced to Linux at a university when no one even cared about Linux. PCQ with its stream of different distros, blug meets and FOSS.in (was called linux-bangalore when I attended it), and the various people I met, including Atul Chitnis, t3rmin4t0r(Gopal V), LaForge (Herald Welte), Brian Behlendorf.. all helped me mature as a linux user and eventually paved way for a career in Linux dev. Atul, with his team, was responsible for getting all the great geeks under one roof, even if they didn't agree with him. He wasn't a software developer, he wasn't a distro maintainer.. he hacked people! He was responsible for a generation of linux enthusiasts and made sure that they didn't turn into fanatics. Atul.. you'll be missed.
My first introduction to Linux was from Redhat and Slackware distros on the PC Quest magazine CDs in the 90s before (slow dialup) Internet access was prevalent in India. I used to eagerly await the PC Quest magazine every month to see if they would have the next Redhat release on their CDs. So long, Atul, and thanks for all the fish. You'll be missed.
He also had 40 years of python and C# experience.
There was a time in the early '90s when I would email him some simple n00b questions about TCP/IP networking. Atul would always take the time to reply. Learnt loads thanks to him
RIP Atul!
Harold
I remember reading the PC Quest article carrying the Linux CD on the cover in 1996.
Thank you so much. God bless.
I sometimes get looked at like an early adopter of Linux (I compiled my first kernel -1.2.13- using Slackware in '94). Linux didn't first get started until '91, but GNU was around before then. I really looked around for Yggdrasil and Debian disks, but found Slackware. Its sad to see early adopters go, but at least their work is not in vain: thousands have come to embrace the technology and extend it to thousands more.
Hugh Daniel also died June 3, apparently of a heart attack. Hugh did a lot of open-source work, particularly the FreeS/WAN IPSEC project. He was well-known for being part of the Cypherpunks and Project Xanadu, and also worked on recovering data from old secret police computer records for the recent Guatemala genocide trials.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I came across PCQ Linux on the magazine cover when I was studying 10th or so I guess, and yes, the FOSS movement those days was very inspiring. I had very limited internet access - I used to go to a Internet cafe, usually at Rs.10 per half-an-hour, and bring back small linux distros on floppies to try out on my Pentium III desktop.. the floppies would usually get corrupted in the dust while walking back home, and I prayed to keep the data alive on them until I got back.. wow those were great adventures :)
Open source software taught me a great deal of things that I realize I'd never have got exposed to with equivalent closed source consumer software. A big thank you to all the FOSS evangelists who brought them to me during my early days with the computers.
Big - not the least because you needed t-shirts with multiple "x" in the size.
How did he get so big? Would that have a connection (pun not intended) to the cause of death? You can be sure that this will be cited by various Hindutva organizations as "morality theater" in support of vegetarianism.