A new phenomenon is emerging in the international IT industry, which would change the face of the industry, forcing many players, both big and small, to re-evaluate their technical and marketing strategies. Indeed, a movement whose impact could herald a new era of competitiveness for Africa`s IT industry. This phenomenon is collectively, Linux and the open source software movement.
Users are realising that the Linux and open source technologies have real value--so much so that in certain areas in the commercial enterprise they have emerged as the "best of the breed". Recent initiatives by IBM, Oracle, Netscape and others in porting their software to Linux bear witness to this.
Linux is stable and reliable, flexible, customisable, cheap and well supported. Numerous enterprise applications have already been ported to Linux at both workstation and the server levels. And this number is growing daily. Paul Kotschy, Chairman of the Linux Professionals Association of South Africa, believes that, in fact, the greatest benefit for a commercial enterprise is "to use Linux and open source technology to reduce its dependency on proprietary monopolistic software vendors, and in so doing to reduce the enterprise`s risk of failure." Linux is helping to return control of the enterprise`s infrastructure from the vendor back to the enterprise itself.
At a technical level, Linux (with all its tools and utilities) appeals to application developers, Web developers, networking specialists, Internet service providers and IT professionals across a wide range of industries. In response to this development, AITEC and the Linux Professionals Association of South Africa will be hosting Linux Africa 2001 from 24 to 26 April, the first major conference and exhibition event in South Africa to promote the use of Linux and open source. The event is aimed at both the business and technical communities. It aims to showcase the state of the art in Linux and open source both in Southern Africa and in Africa as a whole. There will be workshops, presentations by the local and international experts, open discussions, and numerous exhibits.
Kotschy says "The LPA is working very closely with AITEC to facilitate what will surely be the premier Linux-related event on the continent. I would encourage IT players at all levels to attend, and in so doing to become part of this new and exciting phenomenon!"
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