Thursday, February 3 2005 16:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: SlashSupport, a Chennai-based tech support firm today (Feb 3, 2004) said it would provide paid support services for open source Linux customers in the country including corporates and home users.

"The support is for any open standard customer for both server and desktop. The pricing for Indian customers will be affordable," SlashSupport CEO Shiva Ramani told reporters.

SlashSupport has nearly 1,600 employees providing tech support for open source software vendors in the US and is making a foray in the domestic market.

The firm with three centres in Chennai and a redundancy centre in Singapore has tied up with IBM to offer its Linux servers and desktop customers tech support.

SlashSupport quoting market research firm IDC said, Linux is estimated to have grown by 70 per cent in the server segment in India, while Windows grew at 30 per cent.

"We are committed to service level agreements in providing service. This is the offer we give to customers," Ramani said.

IBM Linux Business Manager Asia Jyothi Satyanathan said the firm believes players like SlashSupport will play a critical role in the creation of a Linux ecosystem in India.

SlashSupport will also be able to tap the knowledge base at IBM's Linux centre of competency to gain further insights into the open source domain.