The year of the penguin

I predict that 2002 is going to be the South African year of Linux. I say this because of the sudden and increased interest in Linux that I see each and every day around me. Not only in our offices and among associates and friends, but also more broadly across the country and inside business.

The Shuttleworth Foundation has committed more than 50% of its budget over the next three years to the promotion and development of open source software.

Alastair Otter, journalist, ITWeb

The year certainly started off with a Linux bang for us in the office. A number of colleagues started the year off by installing Linux, some for the first time and some for the second or third time after a long absence from the operating system.

Predictably, there was one person - who shall remain nameless to ensure their tech street-cred is left intact - who managed to delete absolutely everything on their machine, a typical fear when installing Linux. Most, however, managed the installation fairly well, boosting their reputations for being technology-savvy, and at least one is using Linux almost exclusively now - a small but significant shift in the operating system balance.

But more than just my own working environment, the past month has seen a substantial increase in the amount of information and developments in the open source arena that bodes well for its broader acceptance in the coming year.

The Shuttleworth Foundation, for example, has committed more than 50% of its budget over the next three years to the promotion and development of open source software. And SchoolTool, the foundation-sponsored school administration software, is also to be put into the public domain. Although written in Java to ensure platform independence, the software will be made freely available on the Internet when it is finished with the specific provision that users are able to modify it to meet their own needs.

Significantly, the foundation is also sponsoring a number of projects aimed at increasing the penetration of open source software, and particularly Linux, into the education arena, paving the way for future Linux users.

Perhaps the strongest reason for believing that Linux will claim this year as its own is the competition. Microsoft`s new licensing regime, together with the hefty price tag associated with its products - and only getting worse thanks to the decline of the rand - are making open source software an increasingly attractive proposition for many companies. With companies looking to cut expenses in the coming year or face the bankruptcy bell like so many others have already done, the prospect of increased licence fees is not a happy one.

Admittedly in the past Linux has been much more of a hacker`s operating system than a true competitor to Microsoft and the like, despite what its fans would argue. But the last year has seen significant leaps forward in the Linux code base and in particular the applications available for the system.

It has already started slowly in many IT departments of companies around the country and can only grow from strength to strength over the coming months. After all, which technical staff member wouldn`t rather download a firewall/router/proxy from the Internet for free than ask management for yet more money to buy a proprietary product in the current economic climate?

I`m not suggesting that each and every workstation in every office around the country will have a penguin on its desktop by year-end, but I sincerely believe that the coming year is going to see a lot of business people recognising the cost benefits of open source software as well as benefiting from the security benefits of software that has been open to scrutiny since its inception and has had some of the best minds in software engineering thinking about it.