Own a computer for just Rs 5,000

Last year 2.2 million PCs were sold, slightly higher than a year before. Prices for these start at Rs 25,000 and onwards. On an average, if you need a fully loaded, multimedia enabled PC you might have to shell out not less than Rs 45,000. That too with hardware/software compromises.

How about a fully functional desktop at just Rs 5,000! No gimmicks, no frills, perfect display, complete productivity suites and a high-speed processor. Sounds like a dream? Yes, it has been a dream so far, but one man wants to change the rules of the game. Based on the conventional thin client desktop-thick client server OS architecture, this desktop can be affordable for a number of people who are still skeptical about buying a PC due to high price attached and higher maintenance cost.

Rajesh Jain, MD, Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd, is spearheading this task. "It is all about understanding the customer and creating a market that can use it easily. It's like a pizza, buy a pizza for Rs 200 and one that comes for Rs 20 only. I am trying to put together a unit that is affordable, practical in usage, works efficiently and a product you can rely on."

The architecture is simple. It is about creating a software platform, which brings down costs of technology by a factor of 10, thus making it affordable for consumers and enterprises in the world's emerging markets.

"It is going to become the computing platform for the next five million consumers and the thousands of SMEs who have not been able to adopt technology because of high pricing," pointed out

Jain.

This kind of desktop is targeted at the world's emerging markets, because that's where technology has not yet penetrated deeply, and yet, for whom, technology offers an opportunity to better integrate into the world's value chain and improve the standard of living for their people. The key components are a Thick Server for server side; a Thin Client and Digital Dashboard for enterprise client side and enterprise applications.

As per Jain, this architecture provides four key benefits, unmatched in any existing solution in today's marketplace. It brings down the cost of hardware on the desktop and also brings down the cost of software on the desktop. It creates a solution that is easy to manage and scale through server-based computing and integrates with the Windows world, by supporting MS Office file formats.

Tentatively christened Emergic Freedom, this Thin Client-Thick Server is a Linux-based platform which can bring down computing costs dramatically by leveraging older computers and combining it with a Linux-based desktop and set of open source applications (Evolution for e-mail and calendaring, Mozilla for browsing, OpenOffice for the productivity applications--word processing, spreadsheet and presentation, GAIM for instant messaging, providing a single-window login to Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ and Jabber).

This architecture might sound too much like the IBM Mainframe that started the history of computing. The major difference is the re-use of older hardware. Older PCs can now be leveraged as Thin Clients, without sacrificing performance or the desktop look or the applications. These PCs, which incidentally have become an environmental hazard in the developed markets, can now be shipped to the emerging markets where they can be integrated in this platform and used effectively.

This happens because of the use of Linux in a server-computing mode. All the applications are run off the server, with only the display happening on the client side. In that sense, the desktop becomes a terminal. The difference this time around is that the Linux-based Thin Client has all the key applications that the majority of people need to use (e-mail, browser, instant messaging, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation) and there is no performance penalty even though the applications run off the server.

Server-based computing using Linux (and built on the X protocol) is now possible because LAN speeds have gone up to 100 Mbps enabling the transfer of a lot more data over the same network. The result is that a Thick Server (which is actually a new desktop with 1 GB RAM and two hard disks in a software RAID configuration) can easily support 30-40 users. Such a Server would cost about Rs 70,000, implying a per client cost of not more than Rs 5,000.

Taken together, the Thin Client and Thick Server combination not only brings down the cost of both hardware and software by 90 percent, but also provides the IT manager complete control of the client desktop from the server.

The Thin Client-Thick Server, Digital Dashboard and the Enterprise Applications strategies create the foundation for a new IT infrastructure based on Linux and Open Source for SMEs. This solution's cost will be a fraction of what the big players charge, but in functionality it will not be far behind. It is a strategy used by the Indian pharma companies in the last two decades as they made low-cost drugs available to the local populace. A similar strategy has been used by Huawei in China to take on networking majors like Cisco, Lucent and Nortel--it provides half the functionality but at a fifth of the price.

"There's a lot that we have to do. The vision is quite audacious and large in its scope. But I sincerely believe that many things in technology are now coming together to dramatically change computing in the next decade. The Internet was one such 10X, which brought the world's computers closer. And yet, a large part of the world is still relatively untouched by technology, largely because it is driven by US companies and dollar-based pricing. This `other world' is the one that now needs to be impacted by technology. I think of Emergic as the next Tsunami which will bring this world's people and enterprises closer," concluded

Jain.

Jain wants to target schools, hospitals, cyber cafes, call centers, hotels, factories, hostels, business centers, training institutes and residential complexes primarily with this solution.

Talking about the cons, he said that this is not at all standalone device, a threshold number has to be kept in mind to make an economically viable Thin Client-Thick Server solution. Another issue will be the acceptability of this low priced computer in the first place. Cynics may point out that this is not a practical solution to the conventional PC. With Moore's law still in effect, you'd think that something would soon be in offering which will be cheaper than this and might just be a stand alone PC. Cheap computing solutions is what everyone is looking at, but sustaining its availability and creating its own market would be the major task to achieve. Figuring out why the cheap machines have lacked sustainability is hard. It could be because they merely teach people the value of computers, and users soon want more serious power.

Shweta Khanna