Red Hat has opened an office in South Africa to be able to be able to persuade more companies to use free-to-use open-source systems.
The Red Hat office in Johannesburg will be responsible for building up market and technical support services throughout Southern Africa. The company will be recruiting more technicians and will appoint other companies to sustain its software.
Red Hat survives from supplying open-source operating systems, making its money by selling support and consultancy services and also by running training courses for its users and developers.
Government has a policy that controls open-sources products, to save money by not allowing brand-name license fees. They also believe open-sources will protect the home based industry developers modify systems for clients.
Many local companies such as Tiger Brands, MWeb, and Telkom already use Red Hat products. Red Hat has also had a few conversations with government and the State IT Agency, but bidding for tenders is a long and costly process, so they are careful where the resources in the public sector are focused.
By IT News Africa staff reporter
