For a large number of Indians who are using Linux today, that first encounter was through PCQuest magazine - which bundled every flavor of linux it could find in a DVD (along with a bunch of free software) and gave it away with the magazine.

A lot of people I know started using OpenOffice after they first encountered it on PCQuest.

He also founded and ran some of the biggest FOSS groups in India.

RIP.

Actually it was a CD not a DVD, at least for a few years!

Yes, it was a Slackware CD that came with every copy of the PCQuest mag back in the 1995-1996 time frame. My first taste of Linux and more importantly, it satiated a thirst for hacking and knowledge. I still look back and recall fondly all the neat things I learned hacking Slackware. R.I.P. Atul.

Couldn't agree more.

While in 1st year, I would, each month go to the market and buy last month's tech magazines mainly for software and those Linux distros. Now I am on X but I still have fond memories with playing and struggling with all those Linux distros.

When I recently saw his name in one of the news-letters somewhere I immediately checked whether he's the same guy I used to read in those magazines and I was glad to know he was.

RIP!

He chaired the committee that ran and organized foss.in - (un)arguably India's greatest open source event.

Held every December, it attracted thousands of students and working professionals from across the country. It helped set the image of Linux and the wider OSS community fairly high in the country.

I remember going to my first foss.in in 2008. It was brilliant and I felt exhilarated that I could meet with people like minded as myself - who had all come to know about OSS via other efforts. It was India's first gathering of like minded "hackers"[1].

I've met some really great people through foss.in - they've all inspired me with their work on Mozilla, PHP, KDE, etc.. I think pre-GSOC, foss.in was the most significant if not the only torch-bearer of open source in India.

I was very upset when they shut it down after 10+ years in 2011 - the team had apparently felt that their job of infusing Linux in the student population was sort of accomplished.

He was a pretty great guy!

[1]"hackers": the way ESR would call 'em if he could. Selfless, extremely smart, lets-get-things-done people, with tens of contributions to the open source world.

I traveled to India to speak at foss.in years ago. It was a great experience. And I got to visit his house for a party with many of the people that helped make the conference happen--all fond memories.

It was clear from seeing people interact with Atul that people really respected him.

I remember his columns in PCQuest in the early nineties quite fondly. Before internet access was widely available in India, logging into CiX - a BBS he ran - over a 2400 bps modem and a noisy (and expensive) interstate connection was an exhilarating experience.

His biggest contribution was that he ran foss.in

@jacquesm, may I present the other side of the man? Readers can judge for themselves what upheavals he has caused:

1. He took over the Linux-Bangalore group and renamed it to foss.in in 2005. There was also another mailing list but those have been taken down now. http://kingsly.net/kingsly/Linux/bangalore/no-blug

http://kingsly.net/kingsly/Linux/bangalore/no-blug2/

http://kingsly.net/kingsly/Linux/bangalore/no-blug3/

2. Loved to squat on opensource domains and take-over the project: http://lawgon.livejournal.com/45791.html

3. He never hesitated to complain to the bosses of those who disagreed with him: http://lawgon.livejournal.com/45791.html?thread=166367#t1663...

http://lawgon.livejournal.com/4841.html

http://lawgon.livejournal.com/7842.html

Wow, an anonymous comment ripping someone who has just passed away with a bunch of slanderous accusations. You're a brave one.

I won't be doing any judging of the subject of this thread based on your links but I'll judge you by your actions if you don't mind. If you do something like this try being a man about it and put your name to it.

On another note, props for establishing a new low benchmark for anonymous cowardice.

You wouldn't be the author of that blog by any chance?

I don't take kindly to "There is a strange relationship between bleeding heart westerners and some breeds of Indians" or "The westerners, burdened with guilt, tend to take any report from India at face value, and the Indians tend to only respect what is endorsed by the westerners".

I don't see any evidence from your links that he spoke to anyone's managers.

Frankly, I wonder what axe you have to grind and what side of the story hasn't been told by you.

Atul's response is much classier and gives a lot more background info: http://lawgon.livejournal.com/45791.html?thread=165855#t1658...

Agreed. But the accusations are not unfounded and he practically skirted the accusation and simply put a lot of jargon and misleading references and connections which Kenneth countered again in his "non-classy" style with no capitalization. Let's call a spade a spade when needed.

I still liked the guy, I knew these allegations. I read his articles while growing up, as I've mentioned above.

> You wouldn't be the author of that blog by any chance?

The author of that blog, "Kenneth Gonsalves" is dead for almost a year.

I'm sorry to hear that. That just makes the above poster even worse, in my opinion.