TCS | Muggie van Staden: Linux fans should learn to trust Microsoft

Muggie van Staden is CEO of one of South Africa's largest and oldest open-source software companies, Obsidian Systems. But ask him what he runs on his desktop, and he'll tell you it's a Mac. And he recently moved to it from ... Microsoft Windows.<br /> Van Staden says his desktop computing choices are based on the fact that he's not particularly technical, and prefers the relative ease of use of both Windows and macOS.<br /> Indeed, many of the non-technical staff at Obsidian run Windows PCs or Macs, while the company's developers tend to prefer either macOS or Linux.<br /> That Linux hasn't succeeded in displacing Microsoft and Apple on the desktop, against the fervent wishes of many open-source software fans, doesn't worry Van Staden, who points out in this interview on the TechCentral Show (TCS) that Linux and open-source software have won everywhere else - on servers, in the data centre and on phones (Android).<br /> In this episode of TCS, Van Staden chats about:<br /> * How Obsidian got its start;<br /> * The relevance of open-source software in the modern computing world;<br /> * Why Linux has never become popular on the desktop and whether it will ever be anything more than a niche on PCs;<br /> * Why Microsoft should no longer be seen as the enemy of the open-source community, and why the community should not distrust the company's motives in its embrace of Linux and other open-source software; and<br /> * The role of open-source software in enterprise computing in South Africa.<br /> Don't miss a great discussion! <a href="https://www.techcentral.co.za/">TechCentral</a>