"In response to a question on the role of open source software in Africa, Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only US$160."
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Africa, and, for same reason, ex-USSR and China don't need Free Software. They go fine with pirated proprieraty software. In Russia, for example, you can get any expensive program (picture editor from Adobe, video film maker from Ulead or how is that, office suite from MS) for $3, and that'll be avaliable everywhere, just like bear and ice-cream.
But, as country advance, people and government start to understand non-price values of F/OSS, and are going to use and develop it.
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GNU or BSD licensing is not what the poster meant. He meant unlicensed proprietary software, (pirated in other words).
The GNU and BSD licenses both say it is OK to install the software on as many computers as you wish, however proprietary license allows for one install usually, you want more, you buy more
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True, there is a lot of pirated software outside the US, Europe and Japan. On the other hand, government and larger business can not afford to have pirated software, and that is a lot workstations.
TCO and expertise is overestimated. UNIX-like system can extremly easy be managed remotely in a secure manner. There are companies (I know two of them) that will offer remote (most of the time) administration and IT services at affordable prices.
I am not much in a Windows world, but I think that remote administration for Windows is not that simple and secure.
DG
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but the Africans will decide that. Most of them probably choose pirated software, and lots choose open source software.
And I don't agree with the article: you don't need lots of expertise to use open-source, only to install it. And building that expertise isn't an unattainable goal (like getting the money to afford one copy of XP), but rather an opportunity to build a working IT economy in the developing countries.
Go Africa! (I'd say they are young and hungry, but that's got a ugly taste to it...)
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Erm... I'm from Africa. You have some very strange view of us. Most of the software in my country is pirated and not many people know about OSS except for the ISPs which use it to cut down on costs.
Most of the students studiny Computer Science probably don't know what it is. A lot of expertise is needed. You seem to forget ,with the exceptions of places like South Africa, that in most countries Internet is a very expensive luxury, and when it is provided it is very expensive.
Knowledge of OSS thrives on access to the internet, that's how I got my "know how". So in part it is true.
Try speaking to a few "Africans" before passing comments like this.
They tend to be a bit annoying for people who actually have lived and gone to school there.
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I was only thinking practical. If you can copy Windows CDs, you can also copy Linux ones.
Ok, maybe many people don't know about open source stuff, but that's where you come in. I'm sure with your expertise you can provide far cheaper and better internet access or software configurations for your countrymen than the MS weenies.
(by the way, if internet is expensive, many people probably can't afford very fast PCs either, that they need for XP or Longhorn. so that's another chance for open source software)
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They need subsitence farming first. Then heavy industry. Then they will become the next outsourcing haven when china and india become to expensive. THEN THEY WILL NEED SOFTWARE, free or otherwise.
But right now they need stable governments that don't just feed their armies and let their people starve and die of simple diseases.
Outside of urban areas most of Africa does not have running water, much less electricity, much less computers.
Let's just hope that they can skip the whole industrial revolution era of massive pollution and worker exploitation that China and India are both going through right now and where Eastern Europe is headed. Hopefully the countries that have already been through all of that can help these developing nations avoid it.
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RE[2]: They don't need software
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The fact is, a working, relatively advanced IT infrastructure and connectivity can be the basis of a huge jumpstart for developing countries. Since the expertise has to be created from zero anyway, software cost is a very relevant factor: FLOSS could save funds that might be used, and often are badly needed, elsewhere.
Of course this is not going to be a popular thought chez Microsoft, as they're deriving their huge profits from Windows and Office licenses. Which should remind those thinking well about Gates' philantropism that corporations are not interested in your well-being: the money BG spends in "good deeds" is a sort of investment, just like there's a certain sum allotted to ads and infomercials. Their way is the right way, no doubt about that, even if it's going to add to the burden these countries are already facing.
rehdon
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Just because all you hear on the news of Africa is about dictators, wars and starvation does not mean all the countries are like that. The peaceful, stable countries that have enough food far outnumber the Congos and Zimbabwes.
Yes, they are poor. And that's why they need Free software. I've been in several of those 'dollar a day' countries and, in the cities at least, there were computers everywhere.
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2005-07-07
AND I AM THE GENERAL MANAGER OF MICROSOFT IN NIGERIA. I OBTAINED YOUR NAME FROM CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS MAINTAINED AT MY COMPANY. AN AMERICAN FRIEND OF MINE, AN EMAIL ADVERTISING CONSULTANT LIVING UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME IN MY COUNTRY, WAS RECENTLY KILLED AND EATEN BY ONE OF HIS ASSOCIATES. I HAVE SINCE DISCOVERED THAT HE HAS NO KNOWN LIVING RELATIVES TO CLAIM HIS FORTUNE OF $20,000,000 WHICH IS DEPOSITED IN A LOCAL BANK....
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RE: HELLO FRIEND MY NAME IS GERALD ILUKWE
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You have free education thru high school, libraries in every neighborhood, colleges and universities in every town, the internet in every home, 500 channels on the TV.
Yet still so ignorant!
whats your excuse?
never before has so much money and effort been spent on educating a people with such meagre results!
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2005-09-28
Evil. Pure evil.
Africa needs to develop its own IT infrastructure and open source could form the platform from which it could do so.
If developed nations such as the UK and the US have been unable to defend their native IT industries from Microsoft's monopolistic stranglehold practices, what chance does Africa stand?
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I came back from africa about 6 months ago... They where making about a dollar a day where i was (Southern Africa). These guys just aren't going to go out and purchase a "genuine" copy of windows for even a 50 percent discount. Maybe for five dollars... but certainly not 200.
I think F/OSS could go a long ways if it was marketed right. Imho Some company should donate some older machines to the schools over there with a basic linux desktop... it would be a good way to get a user base in the future.
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if they can use cellphones, they will use computers, as needed :
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/10/17/africa.goes.cellular.ap/in...
software costs is not really the issue - they will be smart enough to chose free or closed sources software, as needed. but they need to be protected from convicted, unethical, notorious monopolists killing the market - here Microsoft.
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No it doesn't.
What they need is freedom to develope their country.
Most african countries have tried to develop themself through socialism, and it hasn't worked so far.
India left socialism behind, because it didn't work. And as can be seen that was a very wise step.
Communist China has capitalism too, even though they don't have political freedom (only economical freedom).
For many african countries the way to go would probably be combined solution of liberalism and socialism.
The best thing to do is usually a step-by-step tactic. I believe this is true also for Africa.
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Socialism is the reason why Africa is in the state it is now.
Look at Zimbabwe. Socialist government comes in and redistributes private property and farms in the name of "equality and justice" and turns the bread basket of Africa into another nation that depends on US food AID.
What Africa needs is free market economics, liberty and a spirit of individual responsibility.
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2005-07-06
There is no way that Microsoft is going to go in to Africa and sell Windows for $100. Why not? As has been mentioned, they simply can't afford it. Same reason Microsoft doesn't sell Windows for $10,000 here in the U.S. It's simply not viable.
Software is mostly a craftsman style product. The cost of software is basically labor plus some infrastructure. There's very little actual material cost. Selling software in a poor country made in a country with a higher cost of living (and thus higher wages) is basically folly, as you'll be priced out of the market. Given time, the local market's labor pool can produce "cheaper" software and get much better margins on it. In Ye Olde "Build vs Buy" equation, "build" is a no brainer.
But, MS has the capital and resources to go in with loss leaders, they could "dump" software on the market. In fact, this is basically the argument behind pirated MS software, it is effectively being "dumped". "We may be losing money, but we're gaining marketshare!"
The real power will be from local resources writing local software, either from scratch, leveraging pirated Windows, or using Free Software for foundations.
It's one thing to start up a manufacturing facility to make stereo's or TV sets or a chip fab. But it's quite another to set up a local software shop, train your workers, and provide them with machines. All things considered, that has a prettly low start up cost.
So, the cost of software is basically the cost of the local labor pool. The large software houses know that. Software is the perfect commodity.
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How about food, clean water, medicine and safety? Africa has much bigger problems than deciding what software to run.
http://www.hlam.to/forum/files/89_773.jpg
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How about food, clean water, medicine and safety? Africa has much bigger problems than deciding what software to run.
Really? All 53 countries and some 700 million people on the continent of Africa are lacking food, water, medicine and safety? Please, stop generalizing. America has a smaller share of these problems too. Should we stop worrying about what software we have access to?
There are plenty of companies, governments and individuals in many African countries who would benefit from Free software.
Member since:2005-07-22
Please Add access to Electricity to your list. I'm writing this whilst visiting Madagascar. Here is a country where 85% of the population live of less than $200 per year and a similar number have no access to electricity as well as clean water. Most of them grow their own food and the place is pretty safe these days.
The internet Cafe where I'm access OSNEWS (via 19,200baud dialup!) is running Knoppix on all its PC's but counterfeit copies of XP abound.
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2005-08-30
I quote from the article:
"It's not about the cost of the software, it's about how you take your expertise to people. [...] Cost is not the barrier here -- expertise is".
That, in itself said a lot: Open Source needs badly advocacy, promotion and PR in a concerted manner. It's on the right track but it needs to accelerate!
For the moment, the apparent explosion of versions, distributions and softs could scare unaware people away. Also there needs to be a better organized technical support for the Free Software.
MS thinks it owns the software market of the black continent; what if it does not own it? The same stands for the rest of the world ...
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>He atleast pays money for innoculations for poor
>Africans. Does IBM or Redhat or Novell do such
>charitable deeds?
This is entirely self-serving for Bill and his buddies. He gets a bunch of stock in a company as a "thanks" for buying up millions in innoculations, and they flood the market with "free" drugs which keep a local drug industry from starting up and selling drugs which Africans can afford without charity.
One of the most evil lies ever told by Gates.
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This is response so lacking in actual facts...What company gave Bill Gates stocks? what local drug industry? what drugs is it seeling that Africans could have otherwise afford but still seem to be dying of malaria in large numbers every day? And I guess this can be said of any charity. So I assume your inverted logic would say that we should allow people to die under the assumption that some local industry might come out with drugs. While I don't think Bill Gates' charity justifies selling expensive software to the same people who are innoculated for free, I think your response is also rather lacking in real facts.
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2005-07-06
> Microsoft is not a helicopter dropping relief materials;
> we're there in the field.
Eh... for how many years have Microsoft refused to make localized versions of their software even though they have promised again and again to do it? If people had used F/OSS then they could localize the software themselves, but most africans don't know about F/OSS.
Microsoft wants africans to stay as consumers instead of becoming producers. IMHO F/OSS could play a big part in helping Africa become a bigger software producer.
And when it comes to training I firmly believe organizations such as The Shuttleworth Foundation do a lot more good than Microsoft is ever willing to do.
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That's actually amusing that the head of MS in Nigeria can say that educating the people on how to use the software is more important than the cost of the software, and that gets turned into a "Microsoft is evil because they won't give stuff away for free in Africa" article. As he mentioned, it would do no good to drop copies of XP all over Africa if no one knew how to use them, so they are involved in various education programs. Truly an evil company.
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Some countries in africa might stabilize in the
future. Suppose they have choosen to mostly use
Microsofts products. When their economy starts
getting a little bit better, who do you think
will be there to take advantage of their monopoly?
If they instead choose to mostly use software
that promotes open standards such as OpenDocument
they can never get locked in.
I say be smart from the start!
/Magnus
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Quite funny to see those so-called VIP CEO of this and that delivering the holy truth about a whole continent and people living there : you need this, you don't need that, that is good for you, that is not.
It's easy to focus on cost
No kidding ? lol
...but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important
What is the total impact 'at the end of the day' of a software people cannot buy because it's too expensive and they have other 'small' priorities such as medical care, food, security... ?
I tell you. Zero.
You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it
You can give people commercial software or very expensive computers, expertise is not delivered along with those AFAIK.
"It's not about the cost of the software, it's about how you take your expertise to people. We are sharing our expertise, particularly with governments in emerging markets. Cost is not the barrier here -- expertise is
That is funny how those people try to evacuate the small detail of money, bringing up the bright and shiny 'EXPERTISE' nobody will ever argue about. Cost is not a barrier on a continent with an average annual salary of US$160 ? Go buy yourselves a brain and keep going on 'sharing' your precious 'expertise' on your products with governments. I'm sure it makes feel a lot better the populations.
Those statements are not only stupid but insulting for both the people they are talking about and intelligence.
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OK, it sounds like Microsoft is training IT workers in their product. Even before I read the article I thought, "Hmmm... It seems that the best move on Microsoft's part would be to give away the sofware for noncommercial use so that everybody learns MS Windows, and wants to buy it when they get a computer (not that EVERYONE can afford a computer there.) I have not thought it through completely, but I'm sure that they could have some deal with OEMs to bundle the sofware for a fee... Actually, implementation of this idea sounds REALLY REALLY hard. They're probably doing the best thing business-wise with training IT workers on Microsoft products.
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and it behoovers us to listen with deep, indeed craven bootlicking, respect ...
Let's see - we have a widely diverse continent, think Egypt and Morocco at one extreme, Namibia, Botswana and Malawi at the other, and the wealthiest being South Africa and Libya.
It's not unlike Asia - Pakistan at one end, and Japan and Outer Mongolia at the other, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the north, Indonesia and the Phillipines in the south ...
One might imagine that the last thing Africans need is to have their software choices dictated by a convicted predatory monopolist. One might think Microsoft looks not unlike one Mr Rhodes.
One might also think that Africans, having fought rather hard in most parts - Algeria, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, etc - for the right to decide their own lives, and being prepared to fight their own home-grown governmental pests, don't need to get tied into servicing a monopolist's business plan.
Of course, one might be wrong, and Africans might be quite happy to become indentured Microserfs - but I doubt it.
Wesley Parish
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Just remember what Ubuntu and http://www.go-opensource.org/ are all about, there is work going on to encourage adoption of F/OSS in africa.
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First of all, I'm from Nigeria.
It's always been this way. The reason why the person interviewed made those stupid statements (considering the fact that the average income is $160/mo) is they've always only bothered about the large businesses. That's what the system favours.
Coming to schools, home users, and small businesses, they mostly use pirated software. I can confidently say that at least one piece of pirated software is installed on 99.9% of computer systems. The only possible exception is where a branded system/laptop is bought (DELL, HP, Compaq, etc). Funny thing is, most people purchase second-hand pre-built systems with blank HDs. That's pitting a $100 - $150 price range here against $600 - $2000 (estimated cost of a new computer system) depending on the configuration. They just can't afford the new ones.
Practically everyone makes use of pirated software here as it can be obtained for just under $2. As a matter of fact, it depends on the number of CDs the software comes on. If there are up to 3 CDs for installation, total cost of the software equals $6 (i.e. 3*$2).
Plus most people are completely unaware about open-source. The few that know about it are too lazy to learn and adapt a new environment, as they've been using Microsoft software since they learnt how to use computers.
Piracy here isn't going away, anytime soon.
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