07 September 2006.

PRESS RELEASE

JCDA ORGANISES SEMINAR ON LINUX

FOR ITS MEMBERS

FIRST TIME IN PUNJAB

The trend of adoption of Linux is growing and to ensure that Punjab retains its lead in “Innovative-Business-Practices”, JCDA has taken the lead to organize this “First-of-its-kind-Seminar-on-Linux” for its members and their technical staff.

The seminar, with hands-on-practical sessions was organized in collaboration with OpenLX – The First Enterprise Grade GPL Linux from India.

Linux is today growing all across the globe. China took a world-wide lead when its Government announced Linux to be its only choice of Operating System, due to reasons of Security and Costs.

Various other Governments around the world, for example, UK (Compulsory choice in all Government tenders), Germany (Munich city), Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, and closer-home, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Delhi and now Kerala have announced either full support to Linux as the major or sole choice for their workings.

The Honorable President of India Shri A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has repeatedly spoken of the need of India using Linux as its first choice not only to save money, have better security, but also to build stronger technical talent in the country for its progress.

The new state Government of Kerala state has announced Linux as the sole Operating System to be used in Kerala, due to same reasons of Cost, Security, Better-learning-possibilities for students, among others.

Large corporations like IBM, HP, ORACLE, SUN-MICROSYSTEMS, NOVELL are driving the growth of Linux across the globe by migrating to Linux, by launching/supporting the initiatives on Linux and by openly supporting the use and growth of Linux.

Usage of Linux has many benefits, for example :

Capital Expenses Savings : Lower cost of Operating System, Office Suite (INR 20,000+ on windows versus INR 200 on OpenLX Linux) – You can buy an additional Computer.

Saving of Legal hassles : Using Affordable, yet GUI based, Virus-free, Crash-proof, Easy-to-Use, Open-Standards based OS, Applications & tools, you free yourself from the danger of tough Anti-Piracy issues in addition to Moral-issues of using stolen software.

Recurring Expenses Savings : No Yearly license fees. No Virus scanners required, No S/ware Crashes (Save time, money and Headache), No Forced-Upgrades.

OpenLX Linux consists of the comprehensive stack of Software for the users, consisting of :

Operating System, OpenOffice (DOC, XLS, PPT compatible), InterNet, Accounting, Graphics, Multimedia, Games, Utilities, Programming & Servers of Enterprise Grade under GPL License

(available in different versions with different combinations of above contents)

The Technical sessions of the event was conducted by the C.E.O. Of OpenLX, Mr. Sudhir Gandotra, who was personally invited by Mr. Rajiv Khanna, the JCDA president.

One part of the seminar was for the Technical Staff of JCDA members so that they can install Linux and provide services/maintenance to their users, while the second part was for the Top-executives (member companies) for awareness and decision-making in this direction.

The install of OpenLX Desktop version, claimed to be the easiest-to-install Linux-in-the-world, was rightly demonstrated to the JCDA members & their technical staff. Also, various applications like Office Suite (Open Office that has complete compatibility with .DOC, .XLS, .PPT formats), Internet (Browser, E-mail, Messenger), Multimedia (Audio & Video), Graphics, Utilities etc. were demonstrated.

KalCULATE, which is world's First Financial Accounting & Inventory Package on Linux, developed by OpenLX was also demonstrated to the members.

It was also explained how Linux being Virus-free and Crash-proof, while still being GUI based Easy-to-Use, helps save a lot of money that is otherwise wasted on fighting viruses and recovering from crashes every other day.

The commercial offer of the software stack of OpenLX was found to be very attractive by the members, due to it being fully Affordable. The Desktop Linux is being offered to users for Rs. 200/= (plus local taxes), while the Enterprise server version is available for Rs. 500/= (plus local taxes).

These rates, claimed some members, are lower than the cost of pirated CDs, hence very attractive.

KalCulate (Financial accounting, Inventory Management, Sales, Purchase) package is available in two versions. The Single user version costs Rs.10,000/= (taxes extra), while the LAN version is priced at Rs. 20,000/= (taxes extra)