Open Source guru Atul Chitnis, 51, no more (CIOL)

[Posted June 3, 2013 by corbet]

CIOL reports that Atul Chitnis has passed away. "His was a name that was synonymous with open source. He championed its cause for a major part of his life. Finally, his fruitful existence, touching millions of lives, was to be stolen away by cancer." Your editor had a number of encounters with Atul over the years, including one visit to FOSS.in; he will be much missed.

Open Source guru Atul Chitnis, 51, no more (CIOL)

Posted Jun 3, 2013 13:37 UTC (Mon) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link]

I only knew Atul via Twitter. I don't recall how we wound up conversing, but he was an interesting guy and often insightful. Very sad to hear of his passing.

Open Source guru Atul Chitnis, 51, no more (CIOL)

Posted Jun 3, 2013 17:10 UTC (Mon) by laf0rge (subscriber, #6469) [Link] (2 responses)

I guess not many lwn.net readers without any connections to India will recognize the name.

However, in India, due to his decades-long career in writing for popular computer magazines about technology (and later particularly Free Software), you will find few people above a certain age who will not know his name.

Besides the linux/bangalore and FOSS.in events in the 2000's, he also operated what is generally considered the first Indian BBS, using his own BBS software, pioneering the use of analog modems to connect people all around the country. Always remember that modems, BBSs and the internet arrived much later in India than it did in the US or even Euroope.

Atul was always pushing people and himself to do more. Even during his fight against cancer, he found strength to start writing again. Unfortunately those books he was working on will most likely never be completed now.

To me, one of his most memorable quotes is: "You will not be remembered for doing what is expected of you!".

Atul will be remembered for many things - including everything he did in terms of getting developers involved with FOSS in India.

Open Source guru Atul Chitnis, 51, no more (CIOL)

Posted Jun 7, 2013 15:51 UTC (Fri) by sitaram (guest, #5959) [Link] (1 responses)

I don't think he had the first Indian BBS -- there were already some others at that point if I recall. However, he was, as far as I can remember, the author of the first BBS software written in India.

I had some bbs-mail conversations with him during those days. Great guy, and a big loss to FOSS in general, and especially in India.

Open Source guru Atul Chitnis, 51, no more (CIOL)

Posted Jun 7, 2013 16:51 UTC (Fri) by laf0rge (subscriber, #6469) [Link]

Thanks for the correction regarding 'first BBS'. I've just seen that many sources all over making that claim (without any counterclaim), that I started to carefully note "what is generally believed".

I would love to see those old programs like acomm (his DOS terminal emulator), CyberNet (the BBS software) published somewhere online today. There are dos emulators around that should allow people to run that code, if they're interested in appreciating retrocomputing for some time...