Executive Biographies

Prakash Advani - Founder, FreeOS.com prakash AT freeos.com

He has been working on information technology from 1992 and since then operating systems have interested him. His interest in operating systems compelled him to try out different ones. In 1996 he first used Linux and never looked back since then. He interest in free operating systems grew and he started FreeOS.com in 1998 as the resource center for Free Operating Systems. He works towards promoting the concept of Free Operating Systems. He has worked with all the major operating systems such as Unix, Xenix, Linux, Dos, Windows, Netware, OS/2 and BeOS.

He has been a consultant to several organizations in the area of Internet, Intranet, Networking and Automation. His last job was with Network Computing.

His articles have been published in Linux.com, Linuxgazette.com, The Economic Times, Network Computing, Chip, Computer Reseller News, Web Vision, Express Computers and several other places. In May 1999, he persuaded Ashtech Infotech to hold India's first Linux conference. Since there he's been a speaker at several Linux and technology conferences. He's also on the Executive Committee of the Linux Users Group (Bombay Chapter).

Apurva Shah - Chief Technology Officer, FreeOS.com

He has been actively involved in Internet, Network and Distributed programming since 1994, even before the advent of dot com companies.

Prior to joining FreeOS.com, Apurva was the Director of Technology at Boston Education and Software Technologies, a leading software education and services company headquartered in Mumbai, India. In this role he was responsible for all aspects of the software services business for Boston including business development, implementation and delivery of software projects and client relationships.

Prior to joining Boston he was based in USA where he held positions at AT&T, Earthweb and TIBCO. His focus was on distributed and network computing. He has extensive hands-on programming experience in a variety of implementation languages such as C, C++, Java and scripting languages such as Perl and Unix shell. His programming experience is built on a variety of operating systems such as Solaris, HP/UX, Linux, SunOS, Windows 95/NT, BSD OS and SCO Unix on Intel x86, Sun Sparc, HP workstation and DEC Alpha platforms. Since early 1996 he has been primarily involved with Java technology. He is a frequent contributor to Java trade magazines and online Java publications. He has also taught the Sun Java certification programs in USA.

He holds a M. S. degree in Computer Science from Boston University.