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SCMP Reporter

What do you do with an old laptop? When I say old, I mean old enough to be in primary school. In computer terms, that's old enough for recycling.

Which is the natural next step for the two ancient IBM Thinkpads I have at home. While there is no chance to be able to install Windows XP or even Microsoft Office on them, they have quite enough life in them for the word processing and Web access I need.

After my Sony Vaio died recently, I decided to dig out my neolithic notebooks and recycle them with a few minor upgrades. So I bought some extra memory and set about installing SuSe Linux.

Now SuSe may be a breeze to install on a desktop and is generally straightforward on a full-featured notebook, but my old Thinkpads have very little memory, even with an upgrade, and they lack bootable CD-ROM drives.

As a result, I've spent several evenings in fruitless frustration, failing to install my chosen operating system.

I'm not alone. Forgetting home users for the moment, companies throughout Hong Kong are running their businesses on machines that can barely stagger under the weight of software they were never designed to run.

It is easy to suggest these firms all go out and buy new machines, but with businesses already burdened by the weak economy, it is also unrealistic.

The government- and industry-backed DoIT Campaign was a laudable attempt to reach out to small firms struggling in the wake of Sars, but the campaign is a short-term measure that will soon end.

What these companies need is software support and advice so they can make the most of their existing resources.

Last week's opening of the Hong Kong Linux Resources Centre was a good start. Another public/private joint initiative, the Resources Centre was set up to provide local small businesses with the information and support that most Linux distributors cannot afford to provide.

The Kowloon-based centre will try to convince small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) how open-source software can reduce their costs and improve their prospects. It also provides a Cantonese-language hotline during office hours.

It offers software demonstrations, lectures and forums, a library of Chinese-language open source software and books, as well as an online resource centre.

The centre was co-founded by the Hong Kong Linux Player Group and the Hong Kong SME Association. Earlier this year, the Linux Players received a grant of nearly HK$1 million from the government's SME Development Fund.

I spoke to Vincent Fong, chairman of the Hong Kong Linux Player Group, shortly before the centre had its informal opening in May. Mr Fong said Linux was still commonly regarded as a complex geeks' toy, which explains the group's slightly theatrical choice of name.

Unlike the older Hong Kong Linux User Group, the Linux Players have been more focused on new users. The big difference is that the Linux Players will take care of newbies, Mr Fong told me.

'HKLUG is much more technical. And we can maintain our activities at a higher standard because we have full-time staff,' he said.

He said the Linux community in Hong Kong needed promotion, such as advertisements to capture newbies' attention, and increased commercial involvement rather than depending on a small hardcore group of developers and word of mouth.

Even the government, he said, had sent representatives to learn about what Linux could do for them.

They would like to know more about Linux and they are going to implement Linux in some systems, but they don't have the resources to filter the information from the Web.

'We are going to narrow down the type of software for the government's reference so they can focus on this kind of software for evaluation and testing,' he said.

'One of the main roles of the centre is its library. We found that in real life, although there are many Chinese 'docs', most of them are too long for newbies.'

The group, which consists of eight core members and 20-30 volunteers and 3,300 members, hired four full-time staff to handle research and translation.

We hear much about how valuable Linux can be in a business environment. In the past year, the message has clearly reached an increasingly broad audience, as governments around the world evaluate the system and developing countries begin to see Linux as a practical alternative to software piracy.

This week research firm Gartner Group is set to announce that for the first time in the world, Linux has outsold Windows as a pre-installed operating system. The country where this has happened is Thailand, but we could well see similar upheavals elsewhere in Asia soon.

While it is easy for businesses to consider converting their networks and desktops to Linux, they will get nowhere without adequate support. Without sound advice on how to do the conversion, their machines will probably end up like my Thinkpad, stuck with unsupportable old software and worth nothing except historical interest.



Players attempt to fill the vacuum of Linux support