Posted: 2005-05-17 23:56 Linux rules?  Presenter: Lindsay Williams Guest(s): Mark Shuttleworth The first Linux World Conference and Expo to be held on African soil is being held in Sandton. With keynote speaker Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu Linux LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Can you tell us about Linux? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: Linux has been around for a long time - it’s an entirely free operating system that follows the Unix tradition, and is rapidly emerging as the new contender for the desktop operating environment of the Twenty-First Century. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: The new contender - as opposed to what? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: To the incumbent - Microsoft and the Windows desktop operating environment. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: What’s the difference between Linux and Microsoft? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: There are two fundamental differences. The first is the architecture of it - Linux is very much from the high end of computing, now moving into the desktop, and more and more into things like the personal digital assistant (PDA) and handheld device - so you get the same level of robustness on your PDA, or lap top that people have run banking infrastructure on in the past. Also, the way the software is produced and licensed - it’s produced on a collaborative basis, by people like IBM, as well as individuals around the world. It’s then shared, and effectively deployed in whatever way you see fit - at no licensing cost. Of course you always end up paying for services - labour and infrastructure to support and maintain your infrastructure. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: So how do you pay - as opposed to how you paid in the traditional way for something like Microsoft - I don’t quite understand? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: You can download Linux, and deploy that in a business environment without paying anybody. Typically, though, what you’d want to do is make sure that you have back ups done - make sure that you have services and support. The people are there to help your folks make their printers work, and make their documents work - so you end up directing your costs towards your local IT industry - and that’s one of the reasons why I think Linux is being embraced very rapidly around the world. It’s not only in the developing world, but also in the first world - as an economically more viable option than the traditional proprietary software option. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: How rapidly is it being embraced? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: Astonishingly so. You know, three or four years ago Gartner Group said it would never happen - today HP and others are saying that 18% of their servers shipped are set expressly to run Linux. I think exactly the same thing is going to happen on the desktop, and I think that within five years - taking us to about 2010 - people buying new computers will seriously consider Linux for home use, or for office use. It’s already being widely adopted for office workers who just use the web, or e-mail, or basic office documents and presentations and so on. In those sorts of environments it’s becoming very popular for cost saving - and because it’s resistant to viruses, and considered more reliable. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: So this is a genuine threat to Microsoft? There is a genuine business case for using Linux as opposed to the traditional systems? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: Yes, if you look at very high end infrastructure - that’s now largely run on Linux. Wall Street generally runs on Linux - on the back end - and now more and more people are trying to get that same level of reliability, and cost saving in their desktop environment. So, yes - there is a good business case for doing so. There are very large companies around the world - HP, IBM, Dell and others - making sure that Linux runs on their hardware - making sure that you can get the same level of support for a desktop running Linux as you can for one running a proprietary environment. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Ubuntu Linux - what’s that? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: Ubuntu is my initiative in the Linux space. It’s a project that I have been working on for a year-and-a-half. Essentially we make Ubuntu freely available globally - we also then offer support, and other relationships for it. We’ve had some initial success in a number of countries - in Spain, for example, three of the provinces have said that they will create customised versions of Linux based on Ubuntu, and those will be the standard environments for all pupils in all schools across those three provinces. We’ve seen similar initiatives in Brazil, and more and more large organisations - particularly very high volume server environments like Google and others - are starting to use Ubuntu as well. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Linux World - how do we get there, and what’s it all about? MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: Linux World is at the Sandton Convention Centre. It’s running today, and I think another couple of days - there’s an exhibition as well. It’s fantastic for me to see what’s going on in the local Linux economy - and to see that the attendees here span the spectrum from folks who are pure technologists, to folks who have a strong commercial interest in improving their bottom line. LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Linux World is from 17 to 20 May 2005 at the Sandton Convention Centre. Comments Related to this transcript: 2005-05-18 18:13 - As much as Dell and HP would like to think that they are "pro Linux" I think that they are not. I will believe it when Dell and HP stop making their CONSUMER customers pay the Microsoft tax. Comment on this transcript... Name : Email : Comments :