One of the biggest factors that has inhibited the growth of Linux and open source technologies within the South African market has been that the vast majority of PCs sold today are preloaded with Microsoft`s flavours of the Windows XP operating system.
"In a nutshell, no savvy business would willingly uninstall a perfectly functional operating system in Windows XP (and furthermore one they paid for as part of the acquisition cost of their notebook or desktop) to install Linux as an alternative," says Jason McMillan, HP product manager at Tarsus Technologies.
"That said, however, the popular opinion in the market has been that if the cost of the operating system was to be taken out of the equation, the public`s decision would be vastly different," McMillan opines.
"While many businesses would still choose to buy a Microsoft licence and install Windows, at the same time, a fair proportion of businesses would choose to use Linux and the host of open source applications it comes with," he continues.
"So in response to this clear need in the market, Tarsus Technologies has announced what is considered to be a local industry first, namely the availability of the HP NX6610 notebook without a Microsoft operating system."
This has been made possible through the use of a free bootable operating system called FreeDOS and two locally-supported Linux distributions, namely ImpiLinux and Linspire.
"At face value, this represents a cost reduction of between R700 to R1 000 over a conventional notebook preloaded with either Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional," he enthuses.
"Both of the Linux distributions also come preloaded with the OpenOffice suite of productivity tools, which adds a further R2 000 to R2 500 saving to the mix, considering users would need to buy a copy of Microsoft`s Office suite of tools to gain the same functionality," he says.
"We urge SMEs not to forget that the support for both Linspire and ImpiLinux will need to be facilitated through a separate agreement with the relevant suppliers, namely Yellow Penguin and ImpiLinux respectively."
Looking at the hardware the NX6110s sport under the hood, McMillan says the notebooks are not low-spec machines pitched at an entry-level market. "They`re a couple of rungs up and aimed squarely at the SME market which we believe is ripe for open source adoption," he adds.
"There are two models in the NX6110 range, available with a choice of either a 1.5GHz Celeron or 1.73GHz Centrino processor. While both come standard with 256MB RAM, 40GB hard disk and DVD Writer, the Centrino model comes with integrated wireless LAN functionality (since this is part of the Centrino chipset) and the Celeron comes equipped with a standard wired Ethernet port," McMillan explains.
"This offer is a first for HP in South Africa and we believe it signifies a move that`s also relatively innovative across the portfolio of international brands represented in South Africa.
"No other distributor or vendor has made an offering of this type in the market. We believe the Linux curios SME space represents an awesome market opportunity for HP, since the SME market is where the biggest growth in open source interest is predicted to stem from.
"In the coming months, we will also be considering a move to expand this offer to encompass other HP solutions," he adds. "We`ve already had a good response from this latest offer, as well as from the decision a couple of months ago to make this available on the HP DX and DC series of desktops - we believe it can only go from strength to strength," he concludes.
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With 20 years` experience in the ICT industry, Tarsus is the leading value-added distributor in South Africa, specialising in the supply of the world`s foremost PC and peripheral hardware brands to the local reseller channel.
Tarsus strives to meet the channel`s needs for credit funding, stock availability and efficient logistics, ensuring that resellers are able to deliver the highest quality service to their customers, focus on support and compiling the best overall solutions for their end-user customer base at the lowest possible cost.
The company prides itself on its flexibility, adaptability, knowledge, skills and successful track record combined with an industry-leading ability to manage large roll-outs. These are the reasons Tarsus has consistently been rated as the top distributor in the country by international vendors, resellers and the IT media alike.
With its strong commitment to the South African channel, Tarsus is able to not only make the reseller channel more efficient, but more importantly, it plays a vital role in dramatically reducing the costs of doing business in the local ICT market.
Brands represented by the Tarsus stable include industry leaders like Acer, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Oki, Samsung, TallyGenicom, Targus and Wyse Technology.
More information about Tarsus is available at http://www.tarsus.co.za.
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