Establishment of Task Force For Linux

Most of us love to entertain the idea of a proverbial free lunch. One such opportunity has been around for quite a while but not many people have been eager to avail it. I am referring to the Open Source software.

Monopolistic entities in business world have always been the focus of public contempt, to some extent. This sentiment has taken the shape of a strong and very vocal movement. Microsoft is one such giant corporation, which has been the de facto leader of the software market for decades. Open source was a rebellion against this dominance, and it is becoming a formidable force.

For the past few years, Pakistan has been trying to ride the IT wave, and despite some big achievements, much work needs to be done. However, to the delight of many Open Source enthusiasts, the revolution is here.

In order to bring awareness to the public and enterprise in Pakistan, and to formulate strategy for Linux skills development and deployment, Technology Resource Mobilization Unit (TReMU), a project of the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT), formally launched the Linux/GNU Open Source Initiative 2003, at the "Open Source Strategy and Awareness Seminar" held on April 5 at a Karachi hotel.

The seminar was sponsored by IBM and co-hosted by PIMSAT. A large number of people from government and private sector, including representatives from various educational organizations and a large number of students, presented their papers, demonstrated their development projects, discussed related issues and attended the seminar.

In his welcome address, TreMU Project Manager, Mr Shahid Ansari, introduced the Unit and its objectives.

Adviser to Federal IT Minister, Mr Salman Ansari, talked about the theme of the event. To show Pakistan government's dedication to this initiative, he mentioned that the government has issued a not-so-subtle directive, according to which, all government departments are expected to use Linux-based servers.

He also mentioned that a considerable amount of government funding is available for R&D in Linux.

In his speech, IBM Pakistan Country General Manager, Mr Humayun Bashir, described the Open Source and Linux initiative taken by IBM, the market trend, and acceptance of Linux by various governments in the world. For instance, he said, Germany is 100 per cent Linux compliant, and other countries, namely, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Sweden are undergoing phases of Linux compliance. IBM's commitment to Linux can be seen by its Linux Scholars Programme and Global IBM Linux Challenge, he said.

Among the presenters were Mr Khawar Nihal from PIMSAT, who compared Linux with other operating systems. Stating some interesting facts, he said Microsoft's Hotmail runs on BSD Linux and IIS goes down twice as much as Apache.

Mr Salman Ansari, speaking on behalf of Mr Asad Karim of Comcept, talked about Linux in embedded systems. A representative of Comcept presented a unique creation of his company, a voice-over-IP phone.

Mr Omar Khalid and MrSalman Qayam of IBM talked about the acceptance of Linux in the corporate environment and the R&D taken up by the education sector in the world and IBM's participation as the leader in the Open Source development community. They mentioned that Linux is being used by an increasing number of large companies like, IBM, HP, Oracle, Informix, and Sybase.

Mr Ali Kamal of LMKR also talked about Linux in the corporate environment, he specifically mentioned that oil & gas industry is embracing Linux in a big way.

Mr Muhammad Sabzwari's presentation was about migration to Open Source. Citing survey results, he said Habib bank AG Zurich is 98 per cent Linux compliant, and retail giants like Unilever and Amazon are moving towards Open Source.

After a panel discussion, the final session dealt with strategy formulation. Following are some of the suggestions presented by participants:

• The consumers should inform hardware shops that they want Linux, so that the hardware technicians get appropriate training in solving Linux related problems.

• Government should provide seed money to build necessary infrastructure for LInux.

• Linux should be made a part of the curriculum and training be imparted at the middle school level.

An awards distribution was also held for the winners of Global IBM Linux Challenge which was launched by IBM in 2002. From 68 countries, 2,871 participants, representing 646 institutions worldwide, entered this contest. From Pakistan 133 students participated. Of 20 winners, two were from Pakistan. These two winners, Mr Uzair Hashmi of Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, and Mr Tashfeen Suleman of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore were presented awards by IBM Country Manager, Mr Humayun Bashir.

IBM created this challenge in 2001 to help focus the enthusiasm of students familiar with the Linux operating system and the working of the Open Source community. In the first year, IBM received more than 1400 entries from 64 countries.

The government of Pakistan has committed itself to the reduction of piracy and the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). In the light of these objectives, such an initiative was a logical necessity. The Linux Task Force, which is being formed under TreMU, will comprise volunteers having the capability to participate in the process.

Future of Linux seems to be promising because of the passion and dedication of the people involved.

According to IDC (a technology market research firm), sales of servers loaded with Linux software rose 41 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2002.

A recent survey by Forrester Research paints an even more promising picture of Linux' future. Of the North American CIOs who have already deployed Linux, about 72 per cent said they planned to increase their investment in it. Even more compelling is the fact that 13 of the study's 50 respondents are running Linux on desktops or workstations. It is termed as the operating system of the future.

Ericsson is integrating a Linux-based browser into an upcoming cell phone. Linux is perfect for devices with small memories, tiny screens, and also because it's cheap, stable, and requires a minimum of system resources. Mobile devices and PDAs are an evolving phenomenon, according to IDC; they will outnumber PCs by 2005. When this happens, Linux will go from being the renegade OS to being the interface that brings basic computing to the masses.

There are, of course, a few areas of concern. For instance: Is it stable enough to be trusted with high-end mission critical applications? Can it compete in the desktop market?

Linux and mission-critical applications: This is one area where there is plenty of skepticism, especially with reference to financial applications. Large corporations aren't eager enough yet, to use Linux for mission critical applications. They believe that, like most IT projects, a pragmatic approach is best. With major companies like IBM standing behind Linux and providing full support, it is just a matter of time before Linux becomes an accepted platform for mission-critical applications also.

"Today's big question about porting applications to Linux is not, Can it be done? The answer is Yes.The key question is, Can I sell the concept up the management chain to a CIO/CFO with millions of dollars in potential share options on the table that Linux is a failsafe solution?" says Jon Power, CEO, Sector7.

Linux and the desktop market: One problem in this regard is that using a certain OS is not a stand-alone decision. It involves the issue of applications that are used. The future of desktop Linux is linked with the acceptance of other initiatives such as Star Office. One of the biggest issues faced by Linux is of application support. A full-fledged environment for running Windows applications on top of Linux, could hold the key to the success of Linux on the desktop. A couple of other important factors are hardware support and user interface development.

"I don't think you're going to see it on the desktop," says Forrester's McCarthy.

Linux in Pakistan

Because of a lack of buying power and declined worth of currency, astronomical software prices are a major problem in Pakistan. This also leads to the piracy issue. Open Source software, Linux specifically, is the answer to this problem. Linux is making its way in the circle of Pakistani government and the software enthusiasts.

Sustainable Development networking Program (SDNP) is one of the organizations which is working hard for the promotion of Linux in Pakistan and other parts of the world. SDNP has been a proponent and user of the Linux open source operating system since 1992. Now the Pakistan government is talking about enforcing software copyrights, and if these laws are enforced and crack down happens, there will be a major shift to Linux.

Let's see what some Pakistani Linux users have to say:

"Here in Pakistan, Linux is growing fast, I am personally using Linux Mandrake 7.2, installed on Pantium-III. And the Govt. has also included Linux/Unix in Diploma Courses, so it will grow more than expected," says Hassan Khan.

According to Shiraz, "the best step that could have been taken has been taken. The government has asked all the departments to shift their servers from NT to Linux simply because the government can't afford to buy a 1000-dollar licence for each server."

"From the last one year, Linux spread is on the increase. A year ago almost nobody knew about Linux. Or what Open Source is? But now people are curious about it, trying to learn and try this new robust OS.

"As you may know that in our part of the world, most software we use are pirated as it is impossible to buy those expensive software and other products. The main charm in Linux and other Open Source software for our people would be its cheap legal availability. Admitted, no one likes to use pirated software but we have to do it because of the high price tag.

"The drawback in spreading the knowledge of Linux is the lack of trained people. There are very few institutes which have qualified or experienced people in Linux.

"From the business point of view, if you implement Linux in your business, it would be very hard for you to get support from any IT company because currently no one is offering its support services. So that is also a major drawback.

"As I told the director of ASPLinux (http://asp-linux.com), who is from Pakistan, what we need here in Pakistan is trained people so that we could give support to the businesses who migrate to Linux," says Meraj Rasool.

There is plenty of R&D in Pakistan too, disagrees Irfan Hamid. "I am a system design engineer for an advance engineering research organization. We mostly work in the defence industry. As a computer system engineer, most of my work is done in Linux; and I'm happy to say that there is a lot of development - though low-tech - going on in Pakistan, and a good portion of it is in Linux. Other than the defence industry, some of the other high-tech firms I can tell you about are Enabling Technologies (who are working on a voice-over-IP packet processor), DCC, RWR, Margalla Electronics and PEC, just to name a few. These firms are actively involved in engineering research and almost always use Linux as their base OS, be it research, development or deployed products."

The writer aijazalam@hotmail.com is a system analyst and a freelance contributor.