Linux use among small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong is gathering speed, aided by the government and abetted by aggressive marketing from information technology vendors.
The trend was recently expressed by a clutch of IT industry leaders, who said the deepening penetration of the Linux operating system and other open-source software inside local business had come amid a slump in IT spending.
The government is leading by example, according to acting director of IT services Stephen Mak Hung-sung in his speech to the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo last week.
'We have adopted various policies and measures to promote open-source software as a viable option for deployment, and government departments have been installing open-source software progressively,' he said. 'About half of all government departments have already started to install close to 1,000 open-source software solutions on their computers.'
Open-source software refers to any program, such as Linux, that has its source code made available for modification as developers or users see fit. Historically, makers of proprietary software, such as Microsoft, do not make their source code publicly available.
Yat Siu, chief executive at local outsourcing services provider Outblaze, said the adoption of open-source standards 'has proved important in overcoming intercompatibility issues, lowering barriers to integration, reducing time cost risk and encouraging development, innovation and information-sharing' within enterprises.
Outblaze won the prize for infrastructure building and communications application at the government-sponsored Linux Business Adoption Awards last week.
