Developers, developers, developers, developers and developers! (watch this 19 seconds video and you will understand what do I mean)!

While Steve Ballmer screams (as if there is no tomorrow) to attract the developer community (to embrace M$’s platform), Open Source is gaining acceptance worldwide and communities like FOSS, LUGs are shaping the future of Linux and other Open Source applications.

If you are in India, love OSS apps, but you have been struggling to download the heavy heavy fuel files (or like many others, wondering what to download, where to download from etc), OpenSourceDeal is the way to go.
OpenSourceDeal has been started by couple of passionate guys whose sole aim is to distribute the OSS CDs/DVDs for as low as Rs. 50/.

We are couple of guys who want to make OSS available to as many as possible in as cheap a price as possible. We have undertaken up this project as a part-time indulgence. However, we dream of making our venture the preferred way of acquiring OSS in India.

As and when we move ahead, we want to make sure that the later Distros and applications in the OSS world will be available to out customers, before anywhere else. We also have ambitious plans for Linux Games, OSS Merchandise and what not. In this endeavor of ours, out ultimate dream is that we want to bring the price and availability of OSS at a level where, one will not have to think twice before buying an Application CD or Distro, even if it is “just to chek it out”.

Like me, if you are wondering why pay for a free software, read on. I did a quick QnA with Raseel (one of the founders) and I hope this answers your queries too.

I can anyways order a free UBuntu CD directly. Why order thru’ OSD? What’s the extra value that you are providing?
You can order Ubuntu (or K/X/ubuntu for i386 or 64 bit ) free of cost !! The order comes in anytime from 1 to 3 months. The lesser the number you order, the later it comes. You want the CDs in 3 days, you come to OSD.com.

The CDs are ONLY the vanilla editions.You want the Alternate, Server and DVD editions or any one of the 15 different Ubuntu-clones (E.g Ubuntu Christian Edition, Linux Mint, etc.) you come to OSD.com

Do you guys plan to provide services to enterprises?
Well, no !! We rather cater to the SMBs. An Enterprise has the bandwidth to download the Distros. An SMB would rather order from us and spend the bandwidth on Viral Marketting.

Do you really see a future of OSS in India (pirated windows are available for pretty cheap).
Umm… So are Pirated movies and P2P file sharing… but I still don’t see the demise of , say “TIPS” because of that. Besides, OSS is coming in a big way in India.

The whole Idea behind OSD.com is that you should not have to think about going for Piracy products or budget when buying a software (that too , the OS itself). A use case is a student in Nagpur, who has Unix/Linux as course syllabus in his BCA course. He should be able to just get OSS Distro without having to wait for his teacher to condescend giving him the CDs , or a lucky friend having OpenSuse 10.2 (although he’d rather have FC 5, on which he is learning in his class).

Do share some usage statistics.
My customers are typically people who do not want to waste their bandwidth in downloading Distros. Currently it has only been individuals who required CDs/DVDs like Debian “Etch”, Fedora Core, etc. But I want to get my message across to SMBs who have Linux as their primary Desktop/Server OS. Other potential clients are Educational Institutions, the whole gamut of ‘em, from IITs to Colleges, to Computer Institutes like say CMS or SSi.

If you have more questions for Raseel, do leave them in comments section.
I am pretty impressed with OSD, for the simple reason that I am also involved in distributing TED videos (which are also free for download, yet too heavy for downloads), and I do see a huge value in such simple distribution channels.

So developers, developers and developers – please share your candid feedback on OSD and do let Raseel (and his team) know what more you expect from OSD? (Installation manuals/ videos?)

OSD FAQs.

Related: Why is piracy important?

tags: OpenSourceDeal

Tags: Technology for Startups