Why Linux is Good for the Indian Government

India has faced numerous cyberattacks targeting its critical infrastructure, such as the Kudankulam nuclear power plant attack in 2019 and the Mumbai power grid outage in 2020, giving rise to the need for more secure systems. 

Linux-based systems, like the newly developed Maya OS, are seen as more secure alternatives to Windows due to their open-source nature, which allows for more rigorous security audits and fewer vulnerabilities.

Linux is free and open-source, which eliminates the need for expensive licensing fees associated with proprietary software like Windows. This can result in significant cost savings for the government, which can be redirected to other critical areas.

Security and Price-sensitivity, Both Can be Tackled with Linux

In 2006, the US Federal Aviation Administration announced that it had completed a migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the switch saved $15 million in datacenter operating costs.

The Brazilian government saves approximately 1200 Brazilian reais ($500; £270) per workstation by switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux. This translates to potential annual savings of around $120 million. 

A report published by Heroix suggested that even if you were to use the enterprise Linux (RHEL) which requires licensing, there’s a huge difference between the number of virtual CPUs you can have with RHEL, including all the official support you expect with Microsoft.

Being free is just one aspect of Linux. The major reasons why governments are switching to Linux are privacy and security. Security is one of the key reasons why Linux was used in the international space station as well. 

India is also adopting Linux rapidly. While Linux has around 4% market share globally, in India, Linux has around 15% market share and it is because of the indigenously grown distributions like Maya OS. 

Maya OS, which replaced Windows in the Indian defence ministry, is likely to be deployed across the Army, Air Force, and Navy, forming their future operational system. 

Apart from Maya OS, India has developed BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions), a Linux-based distribution, to enhance security and reduce costs in various government departments and educational institutions.

BOSS is widely used in government departments across states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh. It supports multiple Indian languages and is tailored for e-governance applications.

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has signed an MoU to deploy BOSS Linux across the country in e-governance applications, enhancing security and reducing costs.

Numbers that Might Help India (Economically)

According to a study by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), if 50% of retail PCs sold in 2010 used FOSS, the savings would amount to $205 million on operating system costs alone. For office productivity software, the savings could reach $940 million.

For enterprise PCs, replacing both the operating system and office productivity tools with FOSS could save $966 million, if 50% of the PCs were switched to FOSS. Furthermore, using Linux, which is less susceptible to viruses, India could save around $239.6 million in anti-virus software costs.

Over 200,000 school computers in Kerala use a custom Linux distribution, IT@School GNU/Linux. This initiative is expected to save the state around $428 million in licensing fees.

ISRO, known to carry out space exploration on a budget, also uses Red Hat Linux on the majority of its computers. Since Linux is super flexible, ISRO uses a stripped-down distribution called Raspbian to power receivers in the Tele-Education Broadcasting Program and in the disaster warning system.

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