New Delhi: Buoyed by the performance of server-based Linux operating systems, leading Linux provider Red Hat India would double its workforce to 70 in the country in 2004 while planning to launch Linux desktops for the home segment in the current year.

"Linux is set to go higher and up. At present we are 35 people and we intend to double that during the year for our support and sales organisation. That signifies the market opportunities that we see for ourselves," Javen Tapia, director, Red Hat India said on the sidelines of the ongoing Linux Asia 2004 event today (Feb 12, 2004).

"We already have a desktop product for the enterprise in the form of a professional workstation product. At present we do not have any offering for home segments. Desktops for home segments are what we are looking to address going forward. We are working on it. Soon we would launch Linux desktops for home segment, may be this year," he said.

In the last three years, we have seen migrations from Unix and other proprietory platforms to Linux on the server side of the business, he said.

"We began to address desktop space in October 2002 when we came out of our graphical user interface and features. From then to now, we have seen significant amount of interest and momentum on the desktop also from the client side," Tapia added.

For a country like India, Linux on desktop is a reality and a market opportunity. Red Hat is focussed on that, he said.

Even Red Hat CEO Mathew Szulik during his last month visit to India had stated that Red Hat had an objective to come out with full-fledged desktop offering.