CHENNAI: Its been nearly a month since windows XP has been written a heartfelt obituary by the business world as Microsoft has stopped offering updates for Windows XP. Now relegated to a relic in peoples mind, XP symbolised simplicity while for the others less tension in usage 10 years back. Praveen B, an accountant remembers that Windows XP brought a simplicity, redefining OSs for years to come. While people will have been using XP despite having Open Source OS within the Linux platform — Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Mint — will be making a strong case to be taken seriously now.
Naveen, an engineering graduate shared his first tryst with open source when he installed Linux during his holidays, as a one off experiment, “the interface and usage was similar to XP. As I delved further I found there was a whole new learning experience beyond Windows.” he said.
An advantage with Open Source is that most of the Operating systems and Applications designed use an open build snd can be tried out before installation, “Ubuntu allows the user to try the Operating system and system applications from an USB or DVD, besides having many open source applications which give the same functionality as many of its Windows counterparts such as Word,Excel and Photoshop, shares Prithvi R an engineering student. “Trying Linux and open source products might be hard for some as there is a slight difference in look and functionality, but if one is willing to learn past the initial learning curve, then there is a whole scope of opportunities to learn,” says Prashant Ipe,Lead developer at an IT firm.
Recently Tamil Nadu has become one of the first few adopters of open source through BOSS (Bharat Open Source Software) developed by CDAC Chennai — savinmg a lot of funds for most government departments.