Penguin Not Taking Flight Down Under 294
Bill Bennett writes "New Zealand Reseller News reports that Linux adoption down under is three times lower than North America. From the article: 'Adoption of open source software is slow in the Australasian region according to a report from analyst firm Forrester. Only 18% of the businesses in Australia and New Zealand surveyed for the report were using Linux, while 11% were considering its use. Analyst Sam Higgins says the low rate - three times lower than North America - is because open source is caught between two worlds. He says customers have been conditioned to buy software from vendors and their approved partners.'"
It's called critical mass (Score:2, Interesting)
What I have found (Score:4, Interesting)
Linux is for poor people (Score:5, Interesting)
Notwithstanding that Ubuntu (the word, the concept and the distro) originates in South Africa.
Nevermind....
Monkey clans copying each other ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or more likely that there is contact (visual of the stream at least), it's just that the researchers didn't see it....
Re:The Aussie mindset (and conditioning) (Score:5, Interesting)
With respect to OSS you may well be right about the no free lunch thing. I've had IT support staff at a government department tell me that they are "not allowed to use free software" when the government has recently made it the policy that FOSS must be evaluated before software is purchased. I have seen cases where inferior software (and not just easy to pick on stuff like Windows & IIS either) was used because it was commercial and therefore supported - even though access to the high priced support was limited to God knows who but it wasn't the people that used the software...
1. Buy expensive poor quality software
2. Pay for but don't use a support contract
3. Resist all attempts to bring in a superior FOSS equivalent
4. ???
5. Profit?!
Re:Sheep (Score:2, Interesting)
Linux requires more brain than these people have to spare... So does Windows, but at least they can look busy by clicking on things randomly without getting "You're a retard - please fire yourself at once" error messages back every time they press enter...
Size of Economy (Score:5, Interesting)
I work in IT for a Medium sized company - by Medium I mean 500 staff. I have 4 citrix servers, 1 file and print server and 1 database server and 1 exchange server. WIndows 2000 AD. I have an ISA server on the edge and a couple of PC's with server OS installed on it doing various little "things" inside the network.
We just got VMWARE ESX to try and get rid of the PC's.
The 3 main applications we use are Windows based... There is no alternative for 1 of them... we would have to write our own. We have no Linux skills internally - we would have to hire in or skillup. We have no money to spend on a large scale development project to give us the software we need to change over. We can't afford the duplicate hardware to allow the parallel running required to make the change over a smooth as possible.
Granted all this can be staggered BUT... I recently asked the owners of the company to give me $200 000 to put in a complete DR solution and they said no - without even considering it. Imagine asking for a million dollars to change the whole network over.... and they ask WHY? - and I say: Linux is a better philosophy for running a computer network, and we'll save money - HOW much? I don't know, but we will. HOW long will it take to see the savings? Years and years.
Somebody up the back is now mentioning the savings on license costs... Sure - if you were building a network for a brand new company this would be considerable - for an already establised MS shop, these costs are annoying yet manageable.
I am very impressed with Linux (the VMWARE ESX version anyway). I have played with Linux before and I knew there were things about it that were better than MS - but it's not until it's in production on enterprise level hardware that you really appreciate it's simplicity and robustness. And it doesn't crash - ever.
It's simple really - there are probably 200 companies in Australia that have 3000 staff or more (not counting government departments), of those 200 companies maybe half of them are doing something with Linux because they can AFFORD to - they have the budget and the staff.
All the rest of us struggle on with what we've got - and if what you've got works - and your $100 million a year in turn over company keeps making money - how do you justify the change?
I've been doing my bit (Score:2, Interesting)
I've never let go of MSSQL, however, since the existing software was always dependant on it. (I'm not saying there isn't a way out, just we've always been very happy with MSSQL, one of the few outstanding Microsoft products).
Linux appears to be as popular with home users here too. Before 2000 I worked for IHUG, which became NZ's most successful ISP though the boom, who used almost exclusively Linux.
The most interesting deployment has been Asterisk. While not a smooth ride, we've now got a reasonably reliable software PABX with two GSM lines and four BRI, and it's already providing a cost-saving without even touching VOIP. Sure, the companies may have paid me in wages what they would have otherwise spent, but they get to keep the skills (I'm very loyal to all those who employed me, and continue relationships with them), and they're feeding my family, not a greedy corporation.
Linux Counter numbers (Score:4, Interesting)
Australia: 2338 registered users, 120.90 users/Mpop
New Zealand: 687 registered users, 177.06 users/Mpop
A lot more Linux users per capita Down Under than Out West.
The Linux Counter [li.org] has more.
My rule of thumb is that perhaps 1 out of 200 Linux users register with the counter - but there doesn't seem to be a reason for Australians to register in larger droves than the Americans.
Guess they just don't tell their bosses about it....
Get Counted! [li.org]
Re:18 %? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Business plan for New Zealand (Score:4, Interesting)
There are seven species of penguin [penguin.net.nz] native to NZ. How many in the US, or Finland for that matter? None outside a zoo.
Yes, you probably weren't being serious.
Linux Use Booming Down Under (Score:4, Interesting)
The publically available summary [forrester.com] of the research doesn't give much information on whom was surveyed. Perhaps the survey group was primarily composed of small businesses, which make up the largest number of enterprises here. Those businesses would likely not be using servers, which is where you'd expect to find more Linux users (cf. the desktop).
The survey aside, there are lots of companies [nzoss.org.nz] using Linux in New Zealand (including yours truly [rimuhosting.com]). In a week's time we are hosting one of the [linux.org.au] three biggest Linux conferences right here in Dunedin. And even companies like Microsoft are making the most of Linux [stuff.co.nz] down here.
The end is perhaps not quite nigh.
--
One of those rare antipodean companies using Linux [rimuhosting.com]
Re:Linux is for poor people (Score:5, Interesting)
as an Australian born... (Score:5, Interesting)
Australia has the unfortunate tendency to blindly accept these imports - software being a significant and costly example. The so-called "Free Trade Agreement" [tradewatchoz.org] codifies and enforces this disastrous situation (thankyou Mr Howard [alp.org.au]), right down to "fixing" our patent system and making our continent safe for US multinationals. The inevitable, if unmentionable, corollary is that local interests (such as the independent developer you mentioned) are completely compromised, as everyone knew they would be (hence the widespread protests).
Yet there are many talented Australians doing great work in Open Source. Thanks perhaps to its proximity to high-tech government and defense users, Canberra has produced many of the best known names in Linux and other free software projects - including Andrew Tridgell [samba.org], Nick Piggin, and many others - and remains a hotbed of hardcore kernel hackers. In Victoria there are active Open Source representative groups [osv.org.au] and many intelligent supporters. However none of this has influenced public policy as much as one might hope.
Yes, much more activism and lobbying is going to be required to eject Microjunk from the default purchasing roster, and from the IT mindset. But I am not sure things are so much better in the US - perhaps the mindless M$-centric view has simply been all-too-successfully exported. Just one more indignity ensuing from a decade of Conservative rule. The destruction wrought by the Howard Government was a major factor in my belief that the country was hopelessly regressing, and my decision to leave Australia for a more progressive and much less US-centric society. If they ever get rid of that government, and restore egalitarian policies, maybe I'll go back.
4 million and 20 million. (Score:3, Interesting)
Australia's population [cia.gov] is 20 million, 0.33% of the population of the world.
About Australia (Score:3, Interesting)
Australian management is very slow to respond to anything new. Unless it has proven fiscal success in America and/or Europe (preferably both!), they are just not interested.
Critical mass has a lot to do with this. Australian business simply can not afford to take economic risks for a marginal success. Seeing what works and what doesn't in larger population bases gives at least a basic idea about what should happen here.
Interest in technology or design/engineering concepts that are yet to be proven only seems to arrive because of a managerial import from America or Europe (CEO/CTO).
Lastly, on the point of OSS; I can't think of a single medium (or larger) business that I have been involved with that didn't use some sort of OSS. Chances are that most of the IT Managers in this survey are not aware of the open source nature of all of their applications or they surveyed many small business owners.
That being said, *nix on the desktop (even corporate desktop) is almost a joke in this country. Even if a business makes a economic decision to move to *nix, the reality of the situation here will quickly move them back into reality.
Microsoft is practically ubiquitous in homes around the country; even Apple is very rare. This has a direct effect on the expense on transitioning your workforce to a new operating system, chances are nobody you employ (other than your IT staff) have any experience with *nix.
A smaller, but longer term problem comes to human resources. People become more expensive to hire (you need to train them) and thus more costly to loose. This leads to a secondary effect of keeping people who are woeful to your business, simply because they know the system. It is a sorry state.
It will change, probably 5-10 years after the US/Euro, but then we will be behind somewhere else ...
Speaking of OSS... (Score:2, Interesting)
On the matter of OSS and Australia, Things are happening to make (F)OSS adoption a bit easier for those new to the area. The Australian Service for Knowledge of Open Source Software ASK-OSS [mq.edu.au] is a government funded grant thingy (they call it an "initiative") aimed to provide a knowledge gateway specifically for the Australian higher education sector.
The website's just gone live so information's a bit thin on the ground, but there is definitely movement down here!
Some more reasons why.. (Score:3, Interesting)
- Bundling of Microsoft Operating System with new PC Hardware.
It is not possible for the public to by a PC (including laptops) from any of the mainline retail outlets without Microsoft Windows on it. Individuals can buy parts and assemble their own PC without paying the 'Microsoft Tax' but don't expect any system support. I have used Intel Celeron systems that have been sold as 'working systems' which appear to operate fine under Microsoft XP, but systematically lock up under Linux when stress tested. (This makes Linux look bad.)
- Microsoft Licensing in Education Sector (Schools etc.)
In some places in Australia, it is rumoured that the Windows licensing arrangements for an educational institutions is done on a per PC bases, whether that PC is running Windows, Mac OSX, BSD or Linux. (I'm happy to be proved wrong...) This means that there is no monetory advantage to Schools installing anything else other than Microsoft Networks. These licensing arrangements are negotiated state-by-state, rather than school-by-school.
- System Administrators in Schools
These are typically teachers who have (off their own back) taken on this role. They do what they know. The installation and configuration of computers is given to the lowest bidding service provider, and the typical installation today is Microsoft XP and Ghost.
There are exceptions though, but it needs support from the Education adminstrators to remove barriers (see previous point).
- Business Solution Providers
These people are generally not interested in providing anything that would company specific. Australian providers (business services, telecommunications) are generally lazy and will generally on-sell a foriegn solution then invest in a local product. There are, as always, exceptions, but these companies have to work particular hard to prosper.
- Lack of local promotion of OSS and Linux Solutions
There are no brand name companies in Australia who have gotten behind Linux in any meaningful way to Mr and Ms Jo Bloggs on the street. At no time are they given a choise, or presented with an alternative to the status quo, and the media is happy to promote the next round of anti-viral and anti-spyware products, when one option is to use a system that doesn't require these 'fixes'.
(There are possibly a lot more reasons..)
All this means that there is a huge gap between those that use, develop and understand FLOSS software in the community, and the business, education and public decision makers. Hopefully the Gardiner report had something to say about this as well.
Just my $0.02 worth.
It's both a complicated and simple problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
Here in Australia, and I'd have to guess that it's similar in New Zealand, there is a certain mindset of most people that reflects the greater consumerism ideal around the world of,
"Why should I know how to use this? It should just do what it's supposed to do."
This leads to several problems which are continuously and vigorously pounded upon by anyone who both has a clue and is making money out of the current status quo.
It's hard to put into precise words but basically, most people here are sheep - no pun intended - or, if you wanted a slightly noisier example, cattle.
They want their television shows to watch, cars to work, dinner on the table at a certain time, and computers to function enough so that email can be read and letters written.
When it comes to how a computer works, some people will become almost violent in their protests of "I don't need to know that!", despite the fact that they want to know why they just paid money for someone to clean up their spyware encrusted hard drive, and heaven help the poor soul who suggests that the ignorant user try something else.
"This is how I've always done it", "I can't learn something new", "Free is crap", "Well how come Microsoft is so popular", "I'm sure that the government would say something about that", "What's the catch", "Why does hosting cost so much here then if it's so easy", "I'd never use that", "Why is my computer so slow", "How come you can't make this go faster? It's better than the old one right?"
IT in Australia is in a fucked up state because the majority of people who don't use computers don't know, or care, how computers indirectly influence their lives, and the majority of those that do use computers don't want to know anything more than what they need to do to send an email, play a game, or balance their taxes.
If a virus hits, "Oh well, the salesman said this virus program thing would keep me safe there" - an unpatched copy of Norton's Anti-Virus from 2001.
If their dial-up is dropping out - while trying to send or recieve a multi-megabyte email that you've told isn't going to work - because they've got a shitty internal windows driver-run modem then it's the ISP's fault because, "I only just bought this last week. Why are you kicking me off-line all the time? I want to talk to your manager. You guaranteed unlimited internet."
If they've got DSL - which is 256/64 "for the kids and their games" and the little snot's bitchin' to them and ultimately to me because it's "laggy" - and there's a problem at the exchange, it's the job of the guy in the call centre to physically go out and hand wire them back into the net because "it's really critical I get this email to my friend!"
Some of these examples may sound familiar to some of you. I deal with this crap often, working in IT as a tech support guy and having family and relatives that own various sorts of computers. My Dad got a computer fairly recently. I forced him to get an iMac, predominantly because he knows absolutely fuck-all about how a computer works and I am fed up supporting every little fucking glitch on everyone else's Windows-running PC.
I use Linux. I have it set up to be simple for someone who's used a computer to simply load a browser and surf the net, while I'm fixing their piece of crap.
"This is nice." they say.
"I can show you how to use this on your computer if you like. I'll set it up, and it can be almost exactly like what you used before. There's none of those viruses to worry about that you hear on the news, and look, it's got that card game you like." I reply.
"Oh, uh, no, I don't know how to use this."
"You don't know how to use Windows either."
"Yeah but, Bob gives me a hand sometimes, and a reboot sometimes fixes things, and I can take this to the shop to get fixed too."
Fucking cattle. If there isn't money involved then they don't have a yard stick to measure what's happening. I hear so many peopl
Australia and OSS (Score:1, Interesting)
At the risk of seeming to generalize too much, nonetheless, I have learned a great deal about Australian business culture. Australian management is extremely risk averse, far more than is really reasonable. They are never happier than when they have eliminated all form of risk. Hence their great love of bricks and mortar investment, exclusive deals, monopolies, patents, cartels, and oligarchical forms of administration. These are of course all anti-entreprenuerial tendencies, which goes a long way toward explaining the lack of substantial venture capital activity in Australia, low-levels of private investment in technology, and the poor quality of broadband offerings to mention only a few of the systemic problems in Australian Technology.
Paradoxically, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of brilliant, highly entreprenuerial Australians who create and invent absolutely incredible world-beating products. They do this against all odds, with very little government support, and in a commercial environment where it is almost impossible to raise money outside the clutches of the banks or the established corporations. Given the incredibly small population of Australia, Australians are IMHO over-represented in the ranks of great inventors and innovators despite all this.
I have personaly presented and represented new technologies and technologists to management of large and small Australian companies more times than I can count, and I have to honestly say, the level of reticence and fear amongst Australian line managers is staggering.
"Fear" is the word perhaps that sums it up best - fear of failure. The chief difference I have noted between the US and Australia is that in the US, failure is regarded as an inevitable part of the process. You simply must accept that on the road to success, you will fail many many times before you finally arrive.
However, in Australia, failure is emphatically not regarded as part of the process. Severe consequences can be attached to failure. Business failure translates to criminality in the mind of most Australians. "Entreprenuer" is actually a derogatory term in Australia. Failed entreprenuers are frequently hunted down like dogs as a form of public spectacle.
In such a culture, no Australian middle manager can afford to make a mistake by selecting the wrong software or OS for a particularly significant job, because to do so will put an indelible blot on your permanent record, and that will be the end of you. It is far safer to go through a formal evaluation process of products sold by blue ribbon vendors, M$ of course being the biggest. The evaluation process is designed to distribute the weight of responsibility and blame as widely as possible. This "no guts and no glory" strategy will not make you famous, but it will at least ensure you get to keep your house for another year.
While FOSS has (in spite of the above) made terrific inroads into Australian IT (I think the report under-reports) Australian managers will not get up on their war horses and lead the charge for it, unlike many far-seeing leaders in places like the United States. No one should expect Australians to be like Americans in this regard. It is not how things are done in Australia.
FOSS will make its way eventually. But if you wanted per se to accelerate the process in Australasia, here is what I would recommend;
* Make an iron-clad case for why FOSS is in fact the SAFE choice.
* Stop making technological irrelevancies into deal-breaking issues - sell benefits, not technology. Bundle tools into opaque offerings and "service packages" that do valuable work regardless of how. Forget ideological point-scoring or "territorial gain" objectives.