In the run-up to the first LinuxWorld SA conference and exhibition, where executive director of Linux International, and Linux guru Jon "Maddog" Hall is a keynote speaker, Computing SA caught up with ?Maddog? to get his take on the Linux universe, today and in the future.

Computing SA: Why do you think Linux is such hot news, and causing such a stir in the worldwide market?

Hall: Control. People want control over their business. When a program needs a bug fix or extension, and people cannot get it from the proprietary vendor because the vendor does not have the engineering time to provide it, people become frustrated. With free and open source software (FOSS), the customer can choose to hire someone other than the company that wrote the software to make that fix, or extend the program to meet their needs. The same thing is true for software that is being retired by a company, or software that came from a company that went out of business. FOSS allows you to maintain that software yourself (or hire someone to maintain it) until you are ready to retire it.

If you are creating an embedded device and want to use FOSS, you do not have to ask anyone?s permission, negotiate any royalties or engage any lawyers. All you have to do is obey the licence requirements. You have control over your design.

Computing SA: Without clear ownership by any one party, do you think it can pose a strong threat to proprietary operating systems on the market?

It is actually the fact that no one ?owns? FOSS (or everyone owns it, depending on your view) that gives FOSS its strength. No one can say ?you cannot use it?. There are no embargoes by some large country, and no rapid increase of fees, even if you use a ?commercial? version of Linux, since you can just go to another distribution, maintaining your investment in applications hardware and training.

Where do you go for Microsoft-compatible software when Microsoft decides to change its licensing practices or the cost of its software? Actually, I think I know where intelligent people will go.....

Computing SA: What is your opinion on the campaigns that proprietary software vendors have launched, focusing on Linux having a higher TCO than their proprietary offerings?

These battles go back and forth, with each side claiming victory. It is actually irrelevant. The real issue is not TCO, it is Return On Investment (ROI). If I buy a US$600 software package, and I cannot use it because it does not meet my needs, I am out $600 because I have no way to make the software meet my needs. On the other hand, if I buy a different software package for $700, and that software package meets my needs exactly, saving my company $1 million, then I do not care that the second package costs more.

The ability of FOSS to be tailored to a company?s needs due to having the source code available and modifiable might make the FOSS software much more valuable in the long run than software that you cannot modify.

Computing SA: What are some of the benefits that mass adoption of Linux and open source software can bring to an emerging country like SA? Can it play a valuable role in bridging the digital divide?

It can be more valuable on many fronts. First of all, FOSS can be changed to support the many languages and dialects of Africa. Why should everyone have to learn to speak English?

Secondly, it helps SA?s balance of trade. Why should the country be sending millions of dollars a year outside its boundaries? Shouldn?t you be using that money to employ SA programmers, who eat local food, live in local housing and pay local taxes? And why should local customers in the SA economy have to pay heavy import taxes on foreign software?

Most developing countries cannot afford to pay U.S. programmers the money necessary for tailoring software created in the USA. However, they could afford to pay local programmers to tailor software in their own economic base.

We hear about a lot of software piracy these days, and developing countries typically have more than their share. Some of these people say: ?Why should I use FOSS software? I get all of my software for free or very little money.?

The problem is three-fold: The World Trade Organization is cracking down on software piracy, making it difficult for these countries to keep pirating software; pirated software gives you no control. You cannot get bug fixes for pirated software, or needed enhancements, or training, or other services that require you to show where you obtained the software; and you also send a very bad message to the youth of your country.

Using FOSS software allows you to pull it down free of charge, and use it as you wish, changing it to meet your needs.

Computing SA: What is the single most compelling rationale for mass adoption of Linux on the desktop in the corporate environment, taking into account the high number of Microsoft-familiar computer users in the world today, and their relative resistance to change?

New projects. I do not overly encourage people to take already existing projects in the workplace and convert them from Microsoft to FOSS. At best this might be called ?the all pain, no gain? port. Even if everything goes fine, you still may have people who do not benefit from the change, and all they experience is the porting process.

On the other hand, new projects mean that the people have not been trained yet, have not created a lot of data that might have to be transformed. Everything is new. And you can tell them that Linux and OpenOffice is just a preliminary copy of Longhorn.

Speaking of Longhorn, this might be the perfect time to switch over to Linux. After all, for most Microsoft users, THAT will be the ?all pain, no gain? port.

On the other hand, there may be things that Linux can do that Microsoft cannot do today. As an example, Linux has been 64-bit since 1995. Microsoft will not be 64-bit until Longhorn, due out in 2006 (or maybe 2007 or 2008).

And when Longhorn does arrive, do you expect it to be stable? Or have a large number of applications that are stable?

And finally, you can use FOSS on top of Microsoft today. Jettison Internet Explorer for Firefox, and put OpenOffice on your desktop systems today to let people become familiar with it. Then start sending out your memos in OpenOffice format, so that people have to use OpenOffice to read them. Of course you can read MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents with OpenOffice, so you do not have to switch packages. But the people receiving your documents will have to use OpenOffice, since Microsoft Office does not import or write OpenOffice documents. Then, when your workers are familiar with these packages, just switch the operating system.

Computing SA: What will it take to put the support measures in place required to ease corporate migration to Linux?

A well-trained and intelligent systems administrator/VAR or reseller. One who can tailor a package to exactly what the desktop user needs, and then place it in front of them.

This is particularly true of any type of data entry projects, where the main function of the desktop is not to read e-mail, edit documents or create presentations, but simply to utilize a browser to fill in forms and enter and retrieve data from a database. Why should someone pay a lot of money for that desktop?

Computing SA: It has often been said that Linux migration is not a technology issue, but rather a business issue, taking into account delivery on business drivers and the change management tasks that are required. What advice would you give a company embarking on a migration strategy?

As I said, look for a new project that can be set up from the beginning with FOSS. Then there will be no ?migration.?

Also, you can use Linux systems in places where you know it will work and the end-users do not even know it is there. For example: firewalls; DNS servers; file and print servers; database servers.

This will give your systems administrators and managers time to get used to the system and its administrations.

Computing SA: How can SA corporates, in the spirit of open source, give back as much as they gain from Linux?

By understanding that most corporations have a ?core competency?, the thing that they actually sell or make their money with. Everything else is ?support?, and really not why the customer pays their money. So, if companies develop a ?FOSS? policy for ancillary software (or even business practices), they may find that they can reduce the cost of doing business overall so much that they can lower the costs to their customers, and expand their market.

A friend of mine is a systems administrator for a large company. He HAS to write code that helps him do his job, but he does not have time to write all the code he needs. So, at night he goes home and sits on the couch beside his wife and writes code on his laptop while she watches TV. (Not to be chauvinistic, there are lots of female systems administrators who do the same thing while their spouse watches TV). At the end of the night he contributes his code to a FOSS project that he has joined. The next day he goes into work, and finds out that overnight 10 000 other systems administrators have been doing the same thing, and there is much more code out on the Web that helps him do his job. His statement to me is: ?Maddog, I give so little and get back so much.? FOSS is an amplification system....it amplifies what a single person can do.

Instead of companies putting roadblocks in the way of this happening, they should be rewarding the employees that do this type of thing. Certainly publicly funded institutions and governments should be encouraging this type of behavior. Procedures should be put together to help software programmers and systems administrators re-distribute code that they had to write anyway, or that they feel others could use.

Finally, FOSS projects in SA should be documented, and written about. Case studies showing cost savings and ROI increases using FOSS will help convince other companies and countries that FOSS is the way to go. I have a friend who has a small company that produces system software. The bulk of his product is not sellable, although it has minor value for people in small companies.

On the other hand, there are a few modules that run on top of this system that are very valuable to large enterprises. It is the latter software that he sells to these large enterprises, and the former software is maintained by the FOSS community. If he had to do both, he would not be profitable.

There are many, many business models for FOSS, and LinuxWorld is a place to hear and talk about them.

Computing SA: What difference do you think a conference like LinuxWorld will make to the computing landscape in South Africa?

We talk about the FOSS ?community?, and even though some people in the community may disagree on small issues, the overall community agrees on one thing, that FOSS software is good and can save or make money for companies and consumers.

When you come to LinuxWorld, you will be energized, and you will see others who have made the switch and are likewise energized. You can find answers to questions that have been bothering you about FOSS, and can clear up a lot of the misconceptions about it. You can see the latest and greatest products and projects in the FOSS community, and you can meet peers who are also in the FOSS community.

Recently I was on the island of Bermuda at the request of a company using Linux. I asked that it set up a meeting of the local Linux User Group and advertise it in the newspaper. The local group had become stagnant over the years, and was not meeting anymore. The company told me that no one would come, since ?We are the only ones using Linux on the island.?

We held the meeting and 60 people came, representing twenty companies which were using or supporting Linux on the island. LinuxWorld brings together penguins of a feather.

Most of all, however, I enjoy seeing the .org booths. The pure FOSS groups that are the basis of creating what we call FOSS. The people in these booths are so energetic, so bright, so enthusiastic, that I really just enjoy seeing what they are working on and talking with them. From time to time I also enjoy having a beer with them.

Computing SA: What topics will your discussion focus on and why?

I will be talking about why closed source proprietary software is failing. Actually, why closed source proprietary software FAILED five to ten years ago, but we still struggle to use it. I will show positively why this software is working only by chance, and how we as a society are losing billions of dollars per day to the use of it. I will show why this issue will only get worse as the other 5.5 billion people on the face of the earth try and use this proprietary software.

But I will also be at LinuxWorld to talk with people. I like talking with people, and in particular high school and college students. I hope to show SA that its most valuable asset, its young people, is being stifled by the use of closed source, proprietary software, and what could develop if universities were to observe an ?Open? mindset, both in their software and in their teaching.

I have faith in the world, and I (like the late Gene Roddenbury) foresee a time when people work because they like the work that they are doing, and they are therefore very good at it... that if we put 6.3 billion minds to work on a problem we are bound to solve it faster than if only one or two minds think about it.

Finally, FOSS is inevitable. It will happen...customers will demand it.