The Travels of the
Techno-Freedom-Fighter

For those of you who don’t know, Linux is a Computer Operating system. It is one of the most well-known examples of Free (as in freedom) software and of open-source development: unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows, all of its underlying Source code (programming language) is available to the public and anyone can freely use, modify, and redistribute it. To put it in simple terms, would you buy a car that had the bonnet welded shut? With proprietary operating systems such as Windows that is exactly what you are getting. Which means when the car stops working you can’t take it to any mechanic; you have to throw it away and get another one!

In my situation here in PNG, as I am with the Australian Business Volunteers I represent (in part) the Australian government as well as my precessional integrity as a software developer, makes the piracy of software strictly taboo. Unfortunately in a lot of developing countries they just don’t care so not using pirated software is a hard argument to win . Some of the driving forces behind Linux adoption are the flexibility to customise it to local needs, low ‘Total Cost of Ownership(TCO)’, security, reliability, and remote management. And a lot of organisations are moving across to Linux, for example Brazil's PC Conectado program or the City of Munich in Germany has chosen to migrate its 14,000 desktops to Debian Linux.

I use Linux for exactly these reasons, its solid, it works well and it is easy to train people in. In the end total cost of ownership is so much lower than Windows based Server products. Which makes it brilliant for use in developing countries, because in a developing country often the major barrier to good IT infrastructure for organisations is the TCO? By Total Cost of Ownership I mean the calculation of direct and indirect costs as well as benefits related to the purchase of computer software and Hardware. For example the greater initial price of a high-end computer is to be balanced by adding likely repair costs and earlier replacement to the purchase cost of the cheaper bargain brand. And the initial price becomes just the beginning of the life cycle of costs. In this project the difference is that the initial expenditure on server software is PGK$300 versus PGK$ 105,000.00 for software.

I have a view that it is actually unethical for any IT professional, who is actually concerned about outcomes such as the Millennium Development Goals or Sustainability, to use or recommend any Windows software unless there is no other option. My proponents will argue that utilising open-source software exposes an organisation to risk because many IT service providers in the developing country do not know open-source software and therefore can not maintain open-source software. My counter argument; is that using or recommend any Windows software forces an organisation into a dependency upon Microsoft technologies. And I have found that many expatriate IT professional working in developing countries, firstly only know windows technologies, and secondly don’t spend the time required to train their local counterparts to maintain and improve IT infrastructure, which reinforces the dependency.

I take pride in being broadly skilled in both Windows and Open-source technologies, because in some rare cases I have deployed windows solutions. It just seems to be a more intelligent way to solve problems if you have a ‘large tool box’ with different tools to fix the job. You can choose between using Microsoft, Red Hat, Debian, SME Server, or countless other technologies and Linux distros. Even though there are many intelligent and brilliant people that use and contribute to Microsoft products, there are 100 fold more intelligent and brilliant people working on Linux.

A Linux distro (distribution) is a Operating system comprising of several software components such as the Linux kernel, and assorted free, Open source, and possibly proprietary software. On this project I am using my favourite Linux distro SME Server (formally Esmith or Mitel MAS 6000) a friend and ‘tech mentor’, Steve Jenkins put me on to it back in 2000 and I have regularly used it for most server builds from Guatemala to Japan. I spend a lot of time defending the SME Server distro from other Open Source (serious) Geeks as it lacks a lot of the more ‘hardcore’ elements of other server distros. You see I do believe in the open-source philosophy however my main driving force is a sustainable outcome for the client. The main reason why I use SME Server Distro is because it is simple and easy to administer, maintain and install. When on projects I can train my local counterpart in how to use the distro, in a relatively short amount of time.

Qmail is being the biggest issue with the distro. Qmail is a Mail Transfer Agent(MTA) that runs on Unix/Linux. It was written by Daniel J. Bernstein as a more secure replacement for the popular Sendmail program. The long and the short of it qmail is just plain weird. Dan Bernstein, is quite excentric and hasn't maintained the code for a fair while. Most Linux Geeks don’t like it because it's not strictly open source, because by their rules they classify such software as "non-free”. However, qmail users point out that it is "free enough" for anyone to use. To support modern standards you need a degree in qmail patching. It doesn't support ipv6. Its real clam to fame is that it's "more secure", certainly it is designed to be, or was a while ago - but only if it’s set up correctly. My colleagues are advising me to use Exim witch is the default MTA of Debian Linux. Of course Djb is a genius and great activist with his Court case against the US government where he was able to get the ruling that software was declared protected speech under the First Amendment and national restrictions on Encryption software were overturned. Although he does get stuck into Wietse Venema which is uncool (being Dutch and all), who is the creator Postfix which is the default MTA in a number of Linux distributions and the last two releases of Mac OS X.

On the other hand I am really becoming a big fan of the yum (Yellow Dog Updater - a package manager for RPM-compatible Linux systems). It makes it so easy to update packages on the server. You see, I have customised and deployed two web-based applications for the CIC, an asset management application (AssetMan) and the other a human resource management application (OrangeHRM). For this I needed to update the PHP engine on the server, just two quick yum commands and it was all done! Both of these applications use the LAMP Stack witch refers to a set of Free software programs commonly used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers: L (Linux, the Operating system), A (Apache, the Web server), M (MySQL, the database management system or database server), P (PHP, and/or Python, scripting languages)

I think that the authors of these Open source programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other, the combination absolutely rocks. The great this is that the LAMP stack has become very popular because of its low cost and the utility of its components. Which means that there a lots of web based applications out there to use. The fantastic this is that when used in combination they represent a Solution stack of technologies that support application servers which directly competes with mor expensive alternatives such as Apple Computer's WebObjects, Java/J2EE and Microsoft's .NET architecture.

I am having a fantastic project for the reason that in 8 weeks I have dramatically increased the IT capability of the CIC with a robust, sustainable and scalable solution. All of this for a fraction of the cost that the CIC could have spent, if they had have used a ‘conventual’ IT contractor (PGK $173,420) where I have spent PGK 23,395 and most of that is on hardware. The most rewarding factor is my colleague Clayton, who is a local, and up until 3 months ago he was unemployed and was only employed for a 6 month contract to help with Desktop Publishing at the remote research station. After talking to him in the first week, I put some pressure on the CIC to relocate him Goroka.

About 90% of my time has been spent training Clayton in the mysterious arts of an IT manager. I believe that training someone in a one on one role is one of the most rewarding things you can do. He is really switched on and has then trained other CIC staff to assist him in keeping the IT systems running. I actually get Clayton to do all of the user interaction (once I have trained him in a particular procedure) as so he receives the kudos from his wins, it increases he ownership of the system and I make sure that there is no dependency on me. The good news is that the CIC have just employed him as the permanent IT manager, which is a significant pay rise, and that is a direct outcome of my work [insert warm glow :-)]. I have given Clayton all of my tools (its going to be a bit pricey to replace them all but I know that he will put them into good use) and a ton of software and manuals. So he will be well set up when I leave, which is a great feeling.