Desktop Software Revolution

with Godfrey Marange

Is it really a revolution or are we just getting excited about a small change. Well I think it is the beginning of a new era in desktop software and Linux is leading the way. If this was an African political revolution, then probably Linux would be the leftist movement and typically fighting for the people’s cause. What am I really talking about? I am talking about the movement towards cheaper operating systems that are distributed with new PCs. I am talking about software as a service and not a product that comes with PCs. One of the hampers of business in Africa has been linked to the cost, ICT, red-tape etc.

PC manufacturers are implementing the idea of distributing their PCs with Linux, which will make their products way cheaper compared to a costly Windows bundle. Big name manufacturers such as DELL are getting into it as they push for their products to be more financially acceptable in the emerging markets like Africa and taking into consideration the competition that is being provided by the success of the clone PCs and Servers. Clone PC’s and Servers has long been in the heart of most African Business ICT solutions. This only makes sense considering that about 50% of the cost of your PC is going towards software.

What Linux is bringing to the table is a much cheaper solution, which will result in probably 50% or so cost reduction in PC costs in Africa and the world. That is the power of open source software. Although this is the most highlighted advantage of Linux, I think its just part of it. To me Linux stands out as one of the most stable and secure operating systems which is why it is has enjoyed a lot of success on the Server side of things. You can imagine what this could do for system administrators, users and the enterprise as a whole if that is going to be the case on the desktop end. Linux desktop stands for no more license costs for desktop software and since its open source you can be lucky to get free upgrades or pay someone to do them for you and then you can do your roll out and not have to worry about end user licenses which can run to millions depending on the size of your organisation.

So does this mean Microsoft is no longer the King of the Hill! Well not really, but they are definitely being pushed to change their game plan if they want to stay at the top. In my opinion the tides are changing and the days of expensive Windows bundled PCs leading the market are reaching their end. A competitive market with alternatives is here. To the consumer, this means cheaper PCs and a cut down in IT costs for enterprises (is that a Pheeeew that I hear?). For the emerging markets like Africa, this is a big boost if not a huge one towards catching up to the developed markets in bridging the digital divide. That is why Microsoft had to make sure that VISTA was up to it as far as stability and security is concerned. That’s why they (Microsoft) have embarked on projects to develop enterprise management tools for web based applications because the concept of having software as a service and not a product for now seems as the only way. Microsoft is definitely not going down but they will be fighting day and night to stay were they are, and we the consumers are going to be the biggest beneficiaries of these title fights in so many years.


How is this for a thought? After the announcement by the SA government that it is going open source, First National Bank of South Africa (FNB) said it is going to roll out Linux from Novell on 12500 of its PCs in its retail branches nationwide. In what is one of the biggest wins of open source operating system worldwide and not just S.A. This after 18 months of extensive testing in order to come with a solution for to replace the OS/2 initiative which was blubber since IBM has stopped support for this. Other competitors to this project were Microsoft along with Red Hat another Linux vendor. So on top of getting a stable O/S FNB got it at less than a tenth of what the Microsoft Windows solution was going to be. So you can imagine what the 12500 FNB employees who will be using Linux desktops are going to do when they see the cheaper DELL with Linux PCs for sale in the shops. They will definitely consider them for their homes and recommend them to their friends and then...

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