Open Source and Linux are the buzz words in IT all around the world but why no one is talking about it in Pakistan is a whole different story. It’s a question that has to be bluntly asked: Why isn’t Linux being used in Pakistan’s IT industry? The answer is very simple.

The lack of awareness of Open Source and Linux is immense to the extent that we don’t even know what Open Source means. The IT industry is being controlled by IT managers who still prefer to use FoxPro and Cobol for their applications and are still running obsolete DOS-based software because it seems to be too much of an effort to migrate to Linux or they think Linux is not mature enough to handle their work. After all, the mascot for Linux is a penguin!

Many IT managers in the industry do not opt for Open Source solutions because they think efforts to deploy Open Source are not worth the investment. This assumption, however, is just because of either insufficient knowledge or lack of interest in the latest technologies. Many people will argue that they have the knowledge and interest but Open Source is not as good as propriety software, but they could have been had a bad happenstance.

Let me start with some of the more trivial reasoning, working my way to the more critical reasons why Open Source alternatives can actually help you to perform better. Additionally, I’d like to talk you through how this can happen for companies in Pakistan.

Can you recall how many times your employees, colleges or co-workers have had to call tech support or the IT department to reinstall their Windows Operating System because it had corrupted their system files? Of course, while you think about this, please also be grateful to the virus that didn’t wipe out your entire hard drive.

If you work in the IT department, you are well aware of the fact that once you fix an employee’s work computer, the same bug which caused the office computer to die, would also have a similar effect on their home computer since the virus probably traveled all the way home with them via USB. In fact, this task is so common, that people are hired to do these daily installations on a dedicated basis. But while this may seem like a regular problem you have to deal with, take a look at what you are losing: time, productivity, possibly some data and most importantly, money. On the other hand with a Linux machine, you would still be hiring one person dedicated to playing the role of the Linux Administrator but once the OS is installed on your machine, chances of your computer falling apart at the seams with the drop of a hat, become relatively infrequent.

Justifying the ROI
When we talk about money as being the most important factor, the first thing that comes into our mind is the licensing of the proprietary source software. I know most of the large enterprises don’t care about the licensing money, but if you are not planning for future then I am really worried whether or not there will be a future for you. In case you are forgetting, Microsoft has already announced the deadline for their Windows XP support which means soon, you will be forced to switch to Vista. This isn’t a simple investment in the software but also purchasing requisite hardware to match the system. There is no guarantee that Microsoft will not stop the support for Vista at some point, which means your investment into the infrastructure will continue to grow. For an economy like Pakistan, it is just not possible to upgrade the hardware to keep up with the newly released OS.

But there is hope for the older machines that you may have in your organization. An old Pentium II machine can actually be put to use and make a valid contribution. Thin client computing and Linux Terminal Server Project will allow you to run your favorite Linux distribution on the central server while providing desktop space to hundreds of terminals. I refer to them as a “terminal” here because client machines do not require any processing power or a hard disk. Now does the picture become clearer? With lesser hardware, there is less management, no hard disk failures, comparatively lesser hardware cost, centralized control, secure data and most of all, no multiple licenses. You might, for once, need a calculator to figure out how much money you are going to save if you use thin client technology based on Open Source software.

Answering the Tough Questions
Making the switch to Open Source software means Linux will be your Operating System of choice. Rightfully so, the IT department has to be certain that their technical difficulties be resolved. Because there are fewer Linux experts than there are Windows, the concerns are fair.

Active Directory will not, for example work on Linux. However Linux has its own directory server and Active Directory alternative which allows you to do almost anything you do with your Microsoft Active Directory. The alternate solution is called Samba, which is a suite that provides File and Print services to all type of clients including Windows, Linux and Mac. You can switch over to Samba without letting your users notice a difference in services. The only thing they might notice is better performance and no downtimes if your setup is correct.

The other critical service used by enterprises is mailing service. Open Source provides very few but strong solutions for mail servers which can handle hundreds of thousands of emails without any problems. Their performance is only limited by the hardware hence all big mail service providers use them including Yahoo! These mail servers, again, are license-free.

Spam can also be effectively controlled using Open Source Software. In fact, the Open Source anti-virus software, ClamAV, is more effective than any other antivirus in the market. I have seen ClamAV catching phishing emails which slipped through the well known closed sourced mail scanners.

Client Side Apps
Word processing is obviously a standard tool that every client workstation needs and because of the fact that Microsoft Office is so widespread, you need something compatible with the solution. OpenOffice provides complete the office automation suite, is open and free – in fact, you can use the version you like and will never be forced to upgrade. If you have ever worked with PDF files then you must already know how costly those applications are which will enable you to create and edit PDF. OpenOffice allows you to create PDF just by click of a button and you can always edit PDFs using Kword or PDFedit.

Open Source in Pakistan
For countries like Pakistan, Open Source is the only way to compete with the rest of the world, especially in these tough economic timings. When the whole world is switching to Open Source software, why shouldn’t we? Governments all across the world are making the leap to embracing Open Source. These include US, China, India and Brazil. Believe it or not, the Army also relies more on OS than on proprietary software solutions.

Our Government can also benefit from Open Source software provided they do some research in the field. Pakistanis are getting more Open Source-aware everyday with the 1200% growth in the number of Internet subscribers since 2000, Linux has become a part of the university curriculum. What we need is hard core research and development about how Open Source and Linux will impact our lives. Once the business case is made and disseminated amongst the right lobbies, the change will happen. It has to.

About the Author:
Hameedullah Khan is an Open Source advocate and blogs at azadsource.com

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