Cape Town, 01 Mar 2007
SA is about to become a happy hunting ground for free and open source software, following government's decision to make it the de facto strategy for its new IT implementations, says an IBM SA manager.
Joe Ruthven, IBM SA's business development manager for open computing, says Cabinet's decision to implement a comprehensive open source strategy is good news for the local market. It will help to encourage many other organisations to adopt open source software, he adds.
Last week, Cabinet outlined a strategy that means all departments will have to use free and open source software for new systems development.
"We have been engaging with government on a number of different levels about where and how they could implement open source. Just the cost savings in not having to continually pay licence fees has them extremely excited."
According to Ruthven, at least one large local commercial bank is about to install open source software on its desktops, breaking a long-held tradition of IBM's own proprietary and Microsoft's systems in this sector.
However, he says the issue is not simply an adoption of free and open source software, but rather adoption of open standards, such as Web services, HTML and XML, throughout the system implementation.
"In some cases where proprietary software will have to be used, then they must ensure open standards are implemented so that integration of different systems will be easier," he says.
IBM, the US giant that traditionally made its business out of large proprietary mainframe systems, changed its tactics two years ago by deciding to embrace the open source and open systems arena. It has also implemented the Patent Commons concept, whereby 500 of its own patents have been made available under the General Users Licence, meaning anyone can use them to develop non-commercial systems.
The embrace
Ruthven says South African end-users are embracing the concept. The company's installation of open source systems has surged by 300% over the past year, he notes.
"In 2005, we had to actively educate people about open source and open standards; however, in 2006 people were approaching us about it."
The skills shortage in this arena has been a major concern, but Derek Keats, executive director at the University of Western Cape's Information and Communication Services Department, says this is easily overcome.
"Many people who have learnt proprietary skills can easily port them into the open source arena. Furthermore, companies that see an opportunity will begin to start training more and more open source people. Just because open source implies free, it does not mean there is no business case," Keats notes.
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