After years of working as a system engineer, I have decided to open my own company. It's called Spirula Systems. The name comes from the sea shell Spirula, as it looks like debian swirl, it's a shell, and it lives in alexandria, where Spirula Systems is located.

This company is to provide systems support for GNU/Linux mainly, and use free/open source software whenever possible. It will support BSD and Unix systems too. The complete list of services can be found on Spirula's services page

. The mission statement is: "To support and encourage business decision makers to adopt free/open source software by offering high-quality, reliable, and affordable services".

Following is the official announcement:

After years of dreaming and months of planning, Spirula is finally paving the path for businesses that are seeking to dip their feet in the waters of Free/Open Source Software. In a market that is dominated by software and infrastructures that are costly and occasionally inefficient, we are committed to spreading the values of FOSS, which desire to ensure that the best quality of IT infrastructure is available to everyone. FOSS has the dual advantage of being inexpensive to implement and of being in a continuous state of development, as such we believe that going the FOSS way is in the best interests of any growing business. And that's what we are here for: to give you the chance to explore the possibilities of what FOSS has to offer your company.

Spirula was founded by Ahmed Mekkawy, a.k.a. linuxawy, a member of EGLUG (Egyptian Gnu/Linux Users Group) since its early formation in May 2004, and who is currently a member of the administration team there. Mekkawy is an experienced systems engineer, specialized in POSIX systems in general, and in Gnu/linux systems in particular. With years of experience under his belt - after much solo work and also working as the solutions team leader at eSpace, one of the leading software houses in the Middle East - Mekkway currently serves as Spirula's GM, undertaking both the duties of its CEO and CTO.