FNB goes opensource

Until recently, FNB was still using the ancient OS/2 on their branch network system. Although there is nothing wrong with using an outdated system if it is proven, time-tested and Does The Job (Voyager 1‘s controlling computers is over 30 years old and still going strong), at some stage it becomes pretty expensive finding developers and maintainers for legacy operating systems. Additionally, they replaced approximately 4000 windows2k computers with the Novell Linux Suse operating system for better security and stability.

As an FNB account holder, I feel pretty good about my bank switching to a Unix based operating system. Especially after being reminded of how utterly unusable and unstable windows often becomes, several times this month. The most recent incident involved a parking ticket payment station in the Neelsie which had to be power cycled after its windows (XP) operating system failed, displaying the notorious windows crash screen.

Riaan van Wamelen, CIO of FNB Branch Banking, says the rollout is already under way.
“We piloted our first branch in July of this year with great success and we are now proceeding with national rollout. The solution has proven to be stable and provides us with excellent centralised administration and deployment capabilities.”

FNB could have switched to Macs, which is just computers for dumb people, or they could have gone with Vista for the Hey-what-does-this-buttonOOH-LOOK-SHINY-THING! type, but they chose Linux. Configuration might require a bit more technical expertise, but it is unrivaled once set up properly. Linux is stable, secure and incredibly flexible by definition. FNB made the right choice, and made me more confident in their business as a customer.

On the 28th of September, the University of Stellenbosch will celebrate Software Freedom Day, handing out CD’s, demoing interesting stuff and installing Linux for interested people.