Hilton Theunisson

Hilton is the development manager of the TuXlabs Program, an iniative of the Shuttleworth Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Hilton ran his own successful IT consultancy, while at the same time volunteering much of his time to the Foundation as a project facilitator.

Why is open source software so important?
Open source software offers a social and economic impact within different sectors of society. An entrepreneur will save licensing fees, IT professionals has access to the code, the education and civil society sector are allowed to share, use and distribute with freedom. The open source philosophy promotes the concept of development, offers low entry for skills building and offers open and free access, which is key components to bridge the digital divide. From a Government perspective with 1000 of users, annual licensing fees could be used to build houses, invest in education, creation of jobs, skills programs. The Government can also give every citizen a CD with software to start a business, establish a community training centre or start a business by only copying a single CD.

What is your opinion of the Freedom Toaster?
The Freedom Toaster is a unique concept that thrive on the concept of sharing and easy access. As most applications is only available from the Internet and the cost of connectivity being high, this bring-and-burn kiosk concept, lowers the cost for getting access to the open source software. It also cuts down the time to get a copy to software and offers a wide range of distributions.

Why do you think the Freedom Toaster is being so widely accepted and enjoyed?
In development countries with low bandwidth capacity and high cost, the community can now simply drive down the road and get the software toasted within a couple of minutes. It thus save time, cost and offer a wide range of distributions.

How do you think the Freedom Toaster and open source standards benefit developing countries?
Firstly, well earned moneys do not have to deposited in offshore banks to cover licensing fees. IT professionals do not have to be a "smoke seller" for a high cost piece of software but instead can offer a "free as in gratis" product and gain good rates for their skills and experience. This way the money stay within the development country that will enable the entrepreneur to grow his business and employ more people. Doctors get paid for their skill and not selling a product, high cost of software and licensing fees of propriety software turns well-skilled IT professionals into salespeople. Developing countries can change the tide and the economy by having more skilled people in society appose to having great salespeople.

Where do you think the development of the Freedom Toaster will go next?
Firstly, this concept has the same benefits for development countries. Recently, educational open content was made available on the Freedom Toaster, it is our believe that education is important and the same count for open content. With more and more open source based educational content becoming available, we hope to include relevant projects or content available for toasting.