Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 17:49:05 +0530 (IST)
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Release from 1st Nov


BANGALORE, November 1: Linux, the alternate operating system, is drawing
crowds and luring audiences at IT.COM, the computer exhibition underway at
Bangalore's Palace Grounds.

Linux volunteers, supported by corporate sponsors, have put up an
ambitious exhibition at the LINUX.org pavillion of IT.COM. In addition, a
series of talks, at the technology, corporate and user-level, are being
organised at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for the five-day
duration of this prestigious cyber-expo.

Linux exthusiasts have put up a range of exhibits to display the "power of
Linux" at the show. Besides from Bangalore's active Linux Users' Group,
others who are volunteering at the Linux pavillion have come from Nagpur,
Indore, Goa and elsewhere.

Says Nagpur-based Tarique Sani, a paedetrician who has taken to computers
and is today a Linux guru whose firm writes software for foreign and other
companies, "It's a humbling experience. In Linux, there are people who are
so many times better than me, but still get down to my level to help me
out..."

Besides the ILUG (India Linux Users' Groups) initiative, a number of
commercial firms have also made their presence felt at IT.com. These
include Suse India Gmbh, a Germany-based promoter of Linux which is just
setting up base in Bangalore, and GTCDRom, a firm run by former navyman
U.Taranath which supplies a wide range of Linux low-cost Cds to buyers
across India.

Meanwhile, to provide Linux-users and potential users with sufficient food
for thought, the organisers are arranging a wide range of talks on many
subjects at the IISc, near the Palace Grounds venue of IT.com.

On Wednesday, some of the talks being presented were Frank Pohlmann on the
History of Linux, Kishore Bhargava and Atul Chitnis of Linux in India,
Kishore Bhargava on Installing Linux, and Ganesh Hariharan on Connecting
to the Internet using the versatile powers of Linux.

On Thursday, November 2, some of the talks being put up are Linux
Development Tools, Web Development on Linux, Linux Databases, Linux
Performance, and LDAP under Linux (morning and afternoon session). In the
evening, there will be talks on The Economics of Linux, Linux for ISPs
(Internet Service Providers), and The IBM Linux Initiative.

Likewise on November 3, the talks lined up will deal with Real Time Data
Acquisition, Cryptography under Linux, IPV6 & Linux, Webhosting Control
Panel, Stress Testing Linux, An Industry Perspective on Linux, Linux and
Windows Interoperability, and the HP Linux Initiative.

Finally, on November 4, the talks will deal with Distributed Computing
Under Linux, Scalable Clusters (Mosix), Bandwidth Management and QOS
Routing, Mail Security under Linux, Indian Language Computing, Support
Services for Linux, Linux for Small Businesses and Schools, and Corporate
Directory Services., Linux System Administration, and Fun and Games under
Linux. (ENDS)

-- 
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Atul Chitnis       | achitnis@exocore.com (PGP:6011BCB8)
Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com
Bangalore, India   | +91(80)3440397 Fax +91(80)3341137
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BANGALORE, Nov 2: Linux is being voted as the best-supported computer
operating system (OS), and answers to the queries you have came come to
you in a day or virtually in hours.

This is what Delhi-based Linux guru Raj Mathur told an audience at the
Indian Institute of Science (IISc), held in parallel to the Linux-power
demo being held across the IT.COM pavillion at Bangalore's Palace Grounds.

Mathur pointed to the very-active Indian Linux help mailing-list
(available for free on the Internet), which offered solutions to almost
any problem faced by Linux users "provided you ask your question
properly".

"Linux is free. Even if you're not willing to pay for your support you
have options. Today there are Linux Users Groups in almost every city in
India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Nagpur, Goa," Mathur
added.

Meanwhile, IBM India manager of its solutions partnership centre Charles
Manuel said that Linux is "one of the best thing that has happened, and is
projected to do to application development what the Internet did to
networking".

He said IBM was committed to supporting Linux, and pleged to do its bit to
help application developers and students in this field.

"What we want next year is to have an India-centric developerWorks centre,
which is very localised," he said, announcing plans for building IBM's
developerWorks centre in India.

Freeos.com CEO Prakash Advani, whose Mumbai-based team supports nearly
two-and-half dozen free operating-systems, said Linux was being
increasingly accepted by the corporate world, both as a tool to save money
and offer cutting-edge technologies.

Advani said that with 50 users, any firm could save as much as Rs 100,000
by using a Linux print-and-file server, Rs 275,000 by using Linux as an
Internet and e-mail server, and also a significant sum by using Linux for
networking.

"It can also be used for web-servers, proxy-servers, Internet servers,
firewalls, routers, application servers, database servers or fax
gateways," said Advani.

In another special programme, Tarique Sani of Nagpur went into the various
databases available for Linux. He compared the power of MySQL, PostgreSQL,
Infomix and Oracle.

"Who among the Linux databases is a winner? In my view, it's an unequal
race. It depends on what you really want to do. MySQL is the most popular
in terms of usage. Oracle is quite difficult to get installed, but has its
own advantages," he said.

Vinod Unny, speaking on web-development tools in Linux, said that one
needed to "keep an open mind" on various operating systems (Oss) and be
aware of the potential of Linux for web-development.

In another talk, Madhu Kurup, a technical yahoo at Yahoo India's R&D, said
it was a "major myth" to believe that there are few tools for development
in Linux.

"This is particularly untrue for Linux. Do remember that Linux was put
together by programmers around the world," he said.

"GCC allows to produce code on one type of a machine, and make it
executable for a number of other machines or platforms," he said, also
citing the examples of Bash, Csh and Ksh for shell programming, Vi and
Gvim for editors, Emacs (which can do everything and is a "very complex
beast"), debugers like gdb/xxgdb and ddd, and tools like gprof, make, etc.

Meanwhile, the 'powered-by-Linux' stalls at the Linux.Org pavillion at the
IT.COM has been drawing a wide range of curious computer professionals,
students, engineers and users. Special volunteers are demonstrating the
various capabilities of Linux, in home, development, multimedia,
educational and other settings. (ENDS)

FOR ANY QUERIES, PLEASE CONTACT Atul Chitnis <achitnis@exocore.com>

--------------------------------------------------------
Atul Chitnis       | achitnis@exocore.com (PGP:6011BCB8)
Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com
Bangalore, India   | +91(80)3440397 Fax +91(80)3341137
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