Johannesburg, 10 Sep 2012
Dukstra Technologies, a 100% proudly South African ICT company, today announced the setting up of its open source helpline for South African organisations.
The helpline, called “Open Source Help”, is the first-of-its-kind service in the country to provide free advice on issues related to the use of open source software in the enterprise - non-profit and government organisations in particular. The service can be accessed free of charge by sending an e-mail to osshelp@dukstra.com or by addressing a tweet to OSSForAfrica.
Launching the service, CEO Sanket Sharma - an open source evangelist and contributor to several open source projects himself, mentioned: “Open source is no longer a hacker's or a hobbyist tool. It has become a reality and has become a means for business to achieve competitive edge. South African enterprises have traditionally been dominated by proprietary software, and the decision-makers have been reluctant to adopt open source because of concerns around support, quality, etc. In extreme cases, the people involved in decision-making are not even aware of open source alternatives or open source altogether. With this helpline, we aim to reach out to such people and expel myths and legends about open source. We want to tell them that, obviously there are cost benefits, but this is not the only benefit; that open source does not mean unsupported; that open source does not mean you have to employ an army of hackers; that there are alternatives; and that Dukstra is here to help them in their endeavours.”
The South African government, in 2005, announced an “All Open Source” policy requesting all government departments to adopt open source and only use proprietary software in case there was no viable and usable alternative available. However, the adoption of open source in public departments has been rather disappointing, and most departments still rely heavily on proprietary software.
Sharma added: “We are trying to bridge the gap and trying to take open source where it is needed the most. It is not just Windows vs Linux anymore. There is much more at stake. It is hardworking taxpayers' money we are talking about. And open source is a way for the government to be more responsible with taxpayers' money. We don't see it as just software. We see it as a way and means to building open, transparent and collaborative governments, municipalities and, above all, open and democratic societies.”
The helpline can be reached at osshelp@dukstra.com and is open to any organisation - public, private or non-profit - that is currently evaluating software and would like to explore open source alternatives. Sharma further added: “The question can range from anything - like alternative to a proprietary product, for instance, or 'how does GPL differ from LGPL or Apache', or maybe to complex ones, like 'how do I integrate product x with product y' or 'does version x of product y work with Debian Linux kernel version z?'”
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