Speculation has been mounting about a tender issued recently by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) calling for submissions for a Linux desktop proof of concept (POC). Some commentators have suggested that the move is portentous of eventual migration of all 14 000 desktop computers at the organisation.

However, Sazi Gcaba, technology strategist for open source software (OSS) at SARS, dismisses this as idle speculation. “Our approach on the Linux desktop POC is that we will target strictly the transactional employees,” he says.

Myrna Gordon, acting chief technologist at SARS, dampens speculation even further by noting that a migration will only take place if the POC is successful and achieves all of its aims. According to the tender document, posted on www.sars.gov.za, migrating desktop PCs to Linux may bring with it a number of challenges including: