``People want to believe they get what they pay for. Whether it's a new car or TV set, it's easy to believe that you get quality if you pay a bigger price. Not so in the world of software. The Linux operating system may prove that, sometimes, the best things in life are free,'' says Atul Chitnis, senior consultant with C&B Consulting, a leading IT consultancy firm.

Chitnis, who is also a leading figure of the Linux-India Bangalore chapter, added that the pavilion would be unique in its concept - rather than selling any product, it will cater to the education of visitors to Bangalore IT.COM '99 in all matters regarding Linux. ``We believe that `seeing is believing','' he added.

The stall will also present a "show of power" with Linux, by demonstrating it running on a variety of platforms, running an assortment of software packages - including office suites, networking and system administration applications, Internet access, Intranet support, multi-media and graphics applications, educational, scientific and engineering software and cross-platform application support.

It will also showcase the ability of Linux to run on a range of hardware configurations - from lowly 386-based machines to powerful servers from companies such as Intel, SGI, IBM and Sun in a heterogenous, co-operative networked environment.

Linux represents an important factor in computing as the operating system itself is free, runs efficiently on low-end computing platforms common to countries like India, and demonstrates levels of stability of operation which are difficult to find in other mainstream operating systems, he added. Leading corporates like Taj Group of Hotels, Reliance, Tatas, C-DAC etc and ERP vendors like SAP are already major users of Linux. The operating systems is also set to a big boost with support from Sun Microsystems which is promoting its StarOffice on Linux platforms, Chitnis said.

The best bet for Linux in the country is, however, the vast network of schools, colleges and academic institutions. With machine and software costs going up, many of these institutions may find it difficult to procure machines as they largely depend on old and used machines. The advantage with Linux is that it can run on any platform and perform any high-end applications, thereby bringing down costs.

Chitnis, however feels that while anti-Microsoft sentiment has been one of the factors that has generated interest in Linux, it has distracted the real interest from the Linux platform. ``Linux is effectively Unix today, and Unix has been the platform that many of the software vendors have traditionally been in. Their association with Linux is only a natural outcome of this fact rather than the fight with Microsoft.

The Karnataka government is also planning to encourage use of Linux in a big way. According to Karnataka IT secretary Sanjoy Das Gupta,``Linux is a liberating force across the world. We can't have one organisation deciding what goes onto our computers.'' He said that the state government had recently revised the engineering education syllabus by including compulsory Linux study as part of the curriculum. According to sources, the Union government is also thinking on the same lines and will take a decision soon.