SITA to kick-start OpenSource movement in Surat

South Gujarat Information Technologists' Association (SITA) is all set to begin a Linux revolution within the State. As a start, it has reserved a separate Linux Pavilion at its forthcoming IT Expo 2004, which will be held from 3rd to 5th January, 2004 at
Surat.

According to Brijesh Khanna, of SITA, the association members took this decision seeing the growing inclination for Linux usage in and around Gujarat. "At SITA, we make ways to take the latest IT developments to the general public. The idea of promoting Linux at our IT expo is in line with this year's theme of 'IT for Society'," he states.

The association is trying to get Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Corel and other application development companies, to showcase
their solutions at the Linux Pavilion. "Office suites, anti-virus, mail servers, web-servers, security, application services, intrusion detection and encryption are some of the areas where we are looking for participation," remarks Brijesh. The association is inviting participation from any company or individual offering any OpenSource solutions. This invitation has been extended to hardware vendors as well.

Some other sessions planned at the Linux Pavilion include hands-on training for dealers and engineers on how to install Linux, device drivers, peripherals and setting up various services on stand-alone machines.

SITA has also planned a one-day hands-on training session on 'How to install Linux and applications that work on the OS' sometime in November 2003.

"We understand that unless resellers and their engineers are proficient in Linux, the same can not be promoted to users. The basic idea behind this technical session would be to promote Linux and its applications to users, through the channel," adds
Brijesh.

At present there are very few exhibitions being held to promote Linux in the country. One of the biggest event on Linux held every year is the Bang-Linux expo at Bangalore. The other notable event is the separate pavilion for Linux at Bangalore
IT.com.