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Partners in South Inclined to Sell Open Source
By
Pearl Mistry
Mumbai, Jun 2, 2007
In the wake of repeated raids by Microsoft, selling open source software has taken the fancy of most partners in the southern states of India to resolve the issue of piracy that has been hovering over the channel for months.
Speaking to Channeltimes.com on the shift to promoting the open source platform, B. Kuberan, president of Trichy-based Association of Computer Traders said, "We have considered the idea to promote other open source software, and have spoken to a few Linux vendors about it. We are now in the process of finalizing details."
P.N. Prasad, ex-president of Information Technology Traders Association (ITTA) and vice-president of the Confederation of IT Traders Association said, "Linux is an excellent alternative and has everything but Tally software. We had met up with some Red Hat representatives almost a month ago and shown some interest in selling open source. However, we are still to hear from them."
Kuberan seconded his opinion, saying that open source software is more beneficial for customers as they have to pay a fee only for support. However, he hastens to add that "This is not in any way to eliminate Microsoft from the region but is just a step to do safe and hassle free business."
President and official spokesperson of the Confederation, S. Karthik said, "A lot of activity has been happening on the open source front in the recent months. Our vice president was in talks with Red Hat for promoting open source platform while another partner, Gopalakrishnan had introduced us to some personnel from Novel, who had come with some very good options."
He said that although the object of promoting an alternate operating system was not to give MS a back seat, "we are worried about piracy".
Karthik also informed that the Confederation has submitted a proposal with Microsoft that will ensure channel profitability coupled with benefits for the company. "In the proposal, we have requested MS to come out with an OEM pre-installation kit for its operating system as well. After the initial trial period of sixty days, we can try to convince the customer to purchase the genuine MS operating system, failing which he may opt for an alternative OS, perhaps on the open source platform," said Karthik.
While resellers in the region claim that the software giant has been targeting the Genuine Intel Dealers (GIDs) vehemently, the company was not available to comment on the same.
Prasad said, "Microsoft has collected information from the distributors about dealers who are selling Intel processors, and then raided them because according to them, only the Intel processor dealers sell pirated MS software."
He pointed that the vendor has completely overlooked other branded PC dealers who sell only some units loaded with genuine MS software and indulge in piracy too.
Kuberan said, "If you go through the data, it reveals that so far, only Intel GIDs are being targeted. Unlike other vendors who come to Trichy to introduce us to their new products, Microsoft has no such initiative."
Commenting on the piracy issue, Karthik said, "It is the end-user who is the ultimate beneficiary of the pirated software. My main point of contention with MS is that it ought not to penalize partners who are operating on very slim margins, and have to unnecessarily face legal teams of vendors in their offices. The onus for piracy should be on the customers."
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i do not know since when channel times has become MANOHAR KAHANIA.
why interfere in somebody's personal life and make it a MANOHAR KAHANI |
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- UNKNOWN,
UNKNOWN, LUCKNOW
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?Necessity is the mother of all inventions?. Looks like the IT industry keeps proving this time and again. This issue of going for open source is definitely necessary as clients are looking for ways to beat the license burden of software (if not, at least control to minimum cost ) as well as to find ways to avoid vendor locking while buying hardware . We strongly support this approach by clients and hence have been providing tailor made solutions for storage & other data management solutions. We would be glad to be of service to any vendor who is looking out for such solutions . |
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- Vaidyanathan,
Datalifecycle.c, Chennai
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Ubuntu is another good solution which is free and stable. Most branded PCs come with "FREEDOS" and they end up with pirated WinXP. Why not target these products which together have a very large market share? Channel is too small and is expected to take all the beatings and suffer in silence! |
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- Prasad PN,
Microplus Compu, Pondicherry
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"So, David," said Don Bradman, leaning menacingly across the lunch table, "you think you know better than me and Dennis Lillee and Richie Benaud and the Chappell brothers?" Yet again we were debating the front-foot no-ball law, which Don hated. I believed - and still do - that a reversion to the old back-foot law would be retrograde. Bradman was exasperated. His face had reddened. I suppose mine had too. Then his delightful wife Jessie, for surely the umpteenth time in their lives, eased an awkward situation. "David," she said sweetly, "have you written Don's obituary yet?" No, I hadn't. I wasn't that well organised. And anyway, he was going to live to 100, wasn't he? We all laughed.
The lively disagreements we sometimes had through 30 years' friendship were probably a source of sustenance for Don who, in his own estimation, was never wrong. And, like most great men, he found himself spending much time with fawning yes-men. Yet he was forever essentially a boy from the bush, gifted with an extraordinary mind and reflexes, fired by ambition and fierce determination, the key to his insistence on always being right. The keen-eyed young man with kookaburra features was still discernible in that ageing face.
He once took me to task for writing that he bowled Wally Hammond out with a full-toss at Adelaide in 1933. "It was not a full-toss!" But five or six participants in that Test match, including Hammond himself, had declared it a full-toss. And I discovered - too late - that Don himself had spoken of it as such in his radio summary very soon after the incident.
Amazingly, all these years later, he seemed to regard the bowling of a full-toss as a symptom of defective character. I loved him for it. Somewhere in the 100-plus letters I received from him is his reaction to my costly acquisition at auction of Victor Trumper's fob-watch. He kidded that he was now going to hunt through his cupboards: "I reckon I could dig up a couple of wrist-watches."
He was very generous, contributing forewords to two of my books, with scant concern for remuneration, and giving me all kinds of things he no longer needed, such as early New South Wales yearbooks with his personal rubber-stamp on them. Maybe the one thing we truly shared, the red-and-white cap of the St George club, counted for something. Bradman, who revered cricket's traditions, was a man of adamant opinions. He was laughingly dismissive of a purported history on video, declaring that compiler Ian Chappell's knowledge of history "would fit on a postage stamp". He was content only when he had had the last word in a debate. I suppose it was some sort of substitute for 20 competitive years of habitually carving up bowlers of all descriptions.
Tireless correspondent though he was, he became impatient with birthday cards. "I know I'm 84," he wrote in August 1992. "I don't need reminding. It means I'm one step nearer to the grave." Speaking of which, after one long session at his Adelaide home, he kindly offered to drive me back to the hotel. Just after midnight, as he was steering the car out of Holden Street, a vehicle came speeding towards us from the right. Don Bradman seemed not to have noticed it. Whiteknuckled, I cried out. He rammed his foot on the brake pedal and we were saved. Calm as ever (apparently), he continued driving, saying not a word about our lucky survival.
I once tried to entertain friends with an imagined newspaper headline had the worst happened: 'Cricket writer killed in car crash.' And in smaller letters beneath: 'Driver (old cricketer) dies too.' Just imagine.
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Yes, OpenLX Linux and kalculate have been proving that in various parts of India already. |
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- Sudhir Gandotra,
OpenLX Inc., Delhi
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