I am made to believe that India is the home for computer experts and it has a home base of IT literate who can dish and dash Linux at the drop of a hat.
I have to reserve that judgment now.
I have been looking at who is grabbing the opportunity that Linux has opened up.
It is not India.
It is not Pakistan.
It is not Sri-Lanka.
It is not Bangladesh.
To my surprise who is leading the field.
It is America.
Obama is quietly but effectively spreading the message of wisdom.
Education, Education in IT.
I won’t tell you how I gather the information.
That is top secret.
Even though, it is not at all significant statistically and in numbers who are the people who visit my blogsite with Linux information.
It is again Americans who top the list.
I have been very vocal and forthright with American diplomats and their way of dealing with international affairs.
If one is an American he or she would be very annoyed with what I usually write about Americans but I am glad I have to complement the Americans who would search, gather information and reach for anything that is useful academically.
Then who are the people who disseminate this information to others.
It is again Americans.
It is not these big Universities like Harvard that spread the message.
It is the up and mobile ordinary Americans.
Thanks guys, even though some of your diplomats and politicians are bringing bad name to America you guys are spreading the message of goodwill, especially related to Linux.
Why I say Indians lost a trick.
This is the time all the guys from the West come here to watch cricket and enjoy the warm holiday.
All of them love to carry a netbook or a laptop with them.
Indians could have sold large number of netbooks and laptops to these guys for a very cheap price, if they mastered the Linux Operating System and Utilities.
The idea that the operating system is free could have galvanized them and the amount of saving on each buy / or purchase would have made them to buy not one but three for the price of one they pay in their countries.
Once they got the idea of the price and the use of Linux they would be coming back to Asia for bargains for the next 10 to 20 years to come.
All they have to do is to entice the buyer with wireless dongle and a Flashy Linux Distribution installed in the laptop or the netbook. If they provided a flashy media player to watch the matches (recording and playback) and the value added would have been infections.
This could have been easily accomplished in India, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka.
But nobody wanted to explore and promote Linux in this part of the world.
In Sri-Lanka the reasons are many and I do not want to waste my time discussing that.
Why Indians lost this trick is my amazement.
There is no incentive to learn Linux in Asia because of pirating of software.
There has been an explosion of Linux utilities from last December to now, to Music, to Guitar, to Video to Graphic Rendering like Maya.
If the can at least sell some netbooks with GutaristX installed, that will get the ball rolling, even now.
It is not too late, even now but one should sell the hardware for OEM price and show that you are a good an honest businessman.
We are lacking that type of gentleman businessmen too due to pirating.
For the visitors who come to enjoy cricket and holidays I have a warning,
Please do not buy laptops and netbooks with pirated copies installed.
You cannot take them back to your country. You will be charged at your airport of entry. Same for videos and music and films. Watch them, listen to them while you are here but drop them to a dustbin before you leave.
But if you get a computer with Linux installed, buy that without any fear or get somebody to install Linux for you here. We have few guys in the University (undergraduates) who can do that for you and most of our Sri-Lankan vendors are clueless as regard to Linux.
But please make sure to install KDE desktops like PCLinux, Suse, Mepis in additions to Ubuntu which is Gnome and perhaps Pinguy for glamor.
For information as regard to Linux visit my blogspot at Google (parafox) or WordPress (asokaplus).
In the 6 weeks you are here if you can learn Linux (it can be achieved in 4 weeks) that is something that you can take home without any fear.
Good Lick with Cricket and Linux.
asokaplus 