Red Hat building open source community in India

BANGALORE, INDIA - Linux vendor Red Hat is investing in India to build an open source community in the country, with educational institutions likely to be a key focus, according to the company's top executive.

"We have met with educators and there is opportunity now to bring Linux and open source to advance the use and deployment of low-cost technology for future students," said Matthew Szulik, Red Hat's chairman and chief executive officer, in Bangalore Friday on the final leg of a three-day visit to India. "Building an open source community in India is at an early stage but holds great promise for more applications and more affordable technology."

Red Hat, in Raleigh, North Carolina, raised $600 million this month through a bond offering, bringing the company's cash reserves to about $1 billion. An undisclosed part of those funds will be invested in India in education and to promote an open source community, as well as to expand Red Hat's infrastructure for supporting customers in the region, and product development.

Red Hat plans to form a three-way partnership in India between government, educators and private industry. "If we are going to fulfill the goal, which Red Hat has, to become the defining technology company of the 21st century, we don't believe it is possible to simply go into a marketplace and extract all of the value and leave nothing in return," said Szulik.

Commercial interest in Linux in India is likely to lead to jobs for developers trained on Linux, thus helping a broader and more robust community to evolve, Szulik said. "But I feel strongly that the roots (of the community) are going to be in the educational system," he added.

Red Hat is already working with the open source community in India, which is currently small and fragmented, for localization of Red Hat products in Indian languages, according to Javed Tapia, director of Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd.