Indian FOSS Evangelist Atul Chitnis Dead At 51 39
New submitter knwny writes "Atul Chitnis, the man who popularized open software in India, died on 3rd June of intestinal cancer. As a technology mentor, writer and public speaker he promoted Linux and FOSS since the late 1980s through his association with various tech magazines and conferences. He introduced Linux to thousands of PC Quest magazine readers by convincing them to carry the first ever Linux distribution in India on its cover CD in 1996."
A whole generation grew up with PCQ Linux (Score:4, Informative)
I started using Linux before I got internet or was in a university. I wouldn't have started on Linux (and eventually interned at FSF India) if not for those streams of CDs that were available for a very expensive 100rs (approx 3$ back then).
This wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of toolz. And several others who were behind the curtain (I remember calling up the Digit phone # to ask for help with my i810 video card).
The result was a grass-roots up linux community that sprung up all over India, out of curiousity and tolerating lots of lost partitions.
Both toolz & OldMonk, linux-india old-timers recently lost to us, will not be forgotten (at least by me).