A quiet revolution in the confines of a computer’s Disk Operating System (DOS) is causing a stir among the software enthusiasts across Gujarat. Linux and other parallel open source programmers from the state have finally made the dream of an Operating System (OS) in Gujarati a reality.

According to the programmers, the best part of Utkarsh, as the Operating System is called is that like all other open source operating system, it can be freely downloaded from the site www.utkarsh.org.

Kartik Mistry, an IT professional from Ahmedabad and the founding member of the Linux users’ group said: “Utkarsh is a mission to ensure that the benefits of IT reaches every Gujarati through a local language interface and easy to understand software. We developed Utkarsh in 2004 and kept adding various elements to it with the help of several programmers spread across the state and country.”

Meanwhile, Jigish Gohil, a Vadodara-based IT consultant has taken a step further and has assembled Open Suse, another Linux-based OS with the help of around 1,000 programmers across the world to create an OS that can operate in 100-odd languages, including Gujarati.

“All the major components adapt to the languages available at the click of a mouse. The installation is quick and for free,” said Gohil, who won the award of Top 20 contributors for Open Source.

Gohil had developed the OS that could be run from nodal computers if installed in a powerful server.

“There is no need for separate installation. The DOS just needs a powerful server,” said Gohil, who is also a visiting faculty to M S University’s IT Department.

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