First Annual Bangalore Debian Developer Conference

Posted Aug 15, 2005 2:42 UTC (Mon) by rganesan (subscriber, #1182) [Link]

It's unfair to compare with the number of free software developers with the population of India. Less than 1% probably even have access to a computer. However, considering the number of software developers in India, I have to concede that the number of active contributors or even the number of people who know about free software is quite low. Fortunately this is changing. Linux and other free software is being increasingly used in many colleges and awareness is increasing every day. I expect the situation to considerably improve a couple of years down the line. This conference is one of the ways to increase the awareness.

> And out of all the software developers
> (free and non-free) very few of them have computers at home and out of
> those who have computers, very few of them have internet connection.

This fortunately is no longer true. PCs and broadband access at home is pretty affordable now. Middle income households with kids going to school are increasingly buying PCs and getting an internet connection at home.

> My point is that programming is not a fun activity for most of these so
> called "software engineers". It's just another means to make money.

Sadly this is true. However, this is not a India specific problem. But, like I said, situation is definitely improving in India.