Linux On The Run

What would you say if somebody said you were
expensive, overwhelmingly domineering, arrogant and
cagey? Would you respond or simply look over your
shoulders and get moving without a word?

What if the accuser was a competing product and you
are already being seen by the best of your consumers
as a market bully? Would you speak back?

If you were Microsoft, you probably would speak back
as the software giant is increasingly doing now to
stave off what it sees as the unwholesome propaganda
on Linux. It is not Microsoft’s tradition to take on
rivals in public debate.

But since the Linux gospel started winning strong
disciples even among the long-established adherents of
Windows such as IBM and HP, Microsoft has a window
opened to speak to the market.

Linux is only a decade old but it has won great market
favour, perhaps, more than any other Operating Systems
(OSs). The catch is that it is free and is an open
source. Put that against the general perception of
Windows as an expensive closed source OS, and you have
a picture of a bully facing its heroic challenger. In
a market where consumers are forever antagonistic of
closed source proprietary software and heroes are
rare, Linux got a warm spot easily in the market.

Linux Everywhere
Linux appears to be in everything computing now though
its history wasn’t as interesting as is its
contemporary account. It was not given a chance
against the more established OSs. But the OS written
by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, while studying
at the University of Helsinki, has become the most
talked about of all OSs, and even more importantly, it
has become the totem of cohesion among closed source
opponents. Raised up the Linux flag and you are
likely to see millions of Windows enemies.

The highly praised and robust UNIX OS gave birth to
Linux. In a way then, Linux is a version of the Unix,
created in 1969 by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.
Unix is a platform for mainframes and its ruggedness
is held in awe among techies. Linux has taking a
similar route but much more, it debuted when the
market appeared suspicious of the endless antics of
software vendors to make them stayed hook to paying
more for using software. Linux drives handhelds,
mainframes and even supercomputers. It is in
everything computing.

Because it is written on programmes that can easily be
moved from one to another, it has been able to expand
its goodwill in the market especially the corporate
businesses “tired of endless price hikes, upgrades,
bug fixes and managing the many problems that
Microsoft's software can bring,” as one technology
expert put it.


Windows phobia
Most computers in the world run Microsoft Windows. It
is a worldwide monopoly that resulted from effective
marketing strategies deployed by Founder Bill Gates.
Everything ties to Microsoft; all hardware
manufacturers including the big brands have their
systems running on Windows. But it is a dominance that
is not free of suspicion, fear and even hatred. Not
many people readily understand Linux but they are glad
that there is at least one credible challenger to
Windows global dominance.

"In the shadowy business of selling software, rivals
often get themselves bruised. Microsoft has survived
many attacks just as it has been blamed for the death
of several potential rivals. The company survived an
anti-trust suit in the US to have it split into two
distinct companies about three years ago. It has been
accused of deliberately stifling competition.

The rage of Microsoft Explorer against Netscape comes
handy to most critics in reference to what they see as
Microsoft high-handedness. Not everyone is critical of
Microsoft, in the very volatile business of software,
the last condition for survival is being soft.

But it is in Linux that one of Microsoft’s hottest
products may have met its match. And even then, it
took Linux sometimes to get recognition as a rival. It
is only about two years ago that an official memo
within Microsoft grudgingly recognised Linux as a
competitive product. It dawned on Microsoft that with
big companies entering the Linux camp and countries in
Europe and Asia getting more convinced that Linux was
it; it (Microsoft) would have to draw up strategies to
curtail the blazing Linux.

Now, not only Europe or Asia has embraced Linux, Latin
America and Africa are opening up to the OS. Linux
offers an irresistible appeal to the two continents,
battling with poverty. A cheap OS is preferable to the
one that comes with a “mighty price tag,” said Linux
Consultant Ibrahim Omar in Lagos.

More Time and Linux
In Nigeria, Linux fans are set to increase with
companies like More Time Information Technology
Limited (MTIT) pushing a major campaign to instruct on
Linux and take the solution to corporate enterprises.
MTIT has struck a major deal with HP and Novel to help
have more computing machines within the corporate
sector powered by Linux. There are plans to work with
universities that could potentially have more future
programmers inclined to using Linux.

The use of Linux is likely to spread in the Europe and
the US because, as observed by one technology writer,
“many universities use it to teach computer
programming largely as the source code of it is
readily available for them to play with. As those
students get jobs, they will take that familiarity
with them.”

In Brazil, many universities are beginning to key in
on Linux for research purposes. Nigerian apex IT
agency, the National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA) is already facilitating
training on Linux for local universities. MTIT hopes
to cash in on this.

The business plan of MTIT is simple: Make Linux more
popular and more available. It is hoped that in doing
this, Windows would be a fatal victim of what is
perceived as its overwhelming greed for profit.

But Microsoft is not just watching. It has geared up
for likely competition in Nigeria’s budding computer
market. PC penetration is still low but a fast growing
IT sector would mean more computers would be purchased
in the next few years for homes and businesses. It is
a market Microsoft already has a head start in, but
under-rating Linux or MTIT, its major promoter, could
mean bad business for the software giant in Africa’s
biggest market of 130 million people.

A tripartite pact with HP and Novell certainly
indicates that MTIT is going to be aggressive in its
campaign as it pushes for an across country acceptance
for Linux. It would be the first time any company
would be so ambitious or rollout an organised market
plan for the OS. “All a poor economy like ours needs
is Linux. We are too poor to pay so much money on
those operating systems,” CEO of MTIT Prince Adeniyi
said in Lagos to announce his company’s plans for
Linux.

But the future is not all rosy. Andrew Parker, senior
analyst at Forrester Research in Amsterdam, was quoted
by the BBC as saying that Microsoft's .Net initiative
might spell problems if it is widely adopted because
there are few people working on an equivalent for
Linux. But Linux enthusiasts are not just watching
either.
While organisations such as “Ximian and the dotGNU
project have announced that they are looking to
convert some parts of .Net to work with Linux” in what
may likely tie them to Microsoft's pace of development
rather than do it themselves, there are other groups
that are working on creating a similar completely
independent platform that offers the same suites as
.Net.

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