Spider, Pakistan's Internet mag (www.spider.tm), carries an article in its
August 2002 issue on GNU/Linux in Pakistan. It's by Abdul Basit Khatri
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and Fawad Halim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Excerpts:
* Penetration of GNU/Linux in Pakistan is really low
as compared to other countries in the region. The only
market in Pakistan is that using GNU/Linux in the ISPs.
They use GNU/Linux for providing web storage, file
storage, routing, etc. It is not really utilised to
its full potential.
* Pakistan has only 155 registered GNU/Linux users showing
up on the Linux Counter, about 1.55 users/million.
* The writers say they know of no university offering even an
introductory level UNIX course. "A lot of the so-called
'street institutes' are making good money in the name of
Linux".
* Most of the time, only Redhat and Mandrake distros are
available in the market, and even these CDs are buggy,
so people are scared away from the OS and come out with
the impression that GNU/Linux doesn't work. Not a lot of
books are available too.
Steps they suggest:
- Developing research centres
- Hiring qualified teachers to teach Linux/UNIX at schools
- Making every univ offer at least one course in UNIX at engg level
- Need a local GNU/Linux magazine in both Urdu and English
- Get computer students to realise that GNU/Linux will be a key
player in the IT industry of the future.
- Govt of Pakistan should start investing money in research (like
construction of a Pakistani supercomputer, a huge cluster of
Linux PCs or a police criminal records system).
- The government should use open source software or derive
software from open source for its defence systems.
PLUC (Pakistan Linux User's Community), alias Linuxpakistan, is one of the
more active GNU/Linux groups. They meet regularly in Karachi. Currently
provide free GNU/Linux support via email and the web. It was started in
December 1999. Mailing list has 170+ members, with over 300 on their
website.
Links:
Government of Pakistan pak.gov.pk
Linuxpakistan http://www.linuxpakistan.net
_______________________________________________
Fsf-friends mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
