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Open Source's Battle In Africa
eldavojohn writes "The BBC has more details about something we last discussed in 2008 — the showdown of open source versus proprietary software in Africa. When discussing the issue of cost, the piece quotes Microsoft's chairman on the scene, Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra, who alludes that open source continually costs you money by saying 'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.' On the other end of the story is Ken Banks from Kiwanja.net who has spent 15 years developing open source applications in Africa. His logic is that 'Today we're seeing growing open-source programmer, developer communities in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and other African countries. Clearly, if you have this informal programming sector coming up, access to source code is almost critical if they are going to be able to take advantage of these new tools that are emerging.' Well, the battle rages on, hopefully the emerging African developers and users pick the tool(s) that suit their needs the best."
Come on, everybody knows that there are no developers in Africa. It must be Nigerian scam!
Ezekiel 23:20
the fact that most computers in africa can't even run most proprietary software ? Let alone windows vista.
Although importing new netbooks is only a tiny little bit more expensive than sending used computers there.
Oh yeah, that's exactly what they need in Nigeria--more programming skills.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'"
And then Microsoft stops supporting the product, changes the formats the products uses, and makes prior formats erratic or impossible to implement. It's a good thing you'll enjoy your purchase of brand new software, because you'll be doing it again and again and again.
Or, you can go the Open Source route, which is continually and freely developed, usually for free-as-in-beer, and respects its own history. And if development stops, it's usually because some better Open Source project forked off or replaced it.
Better as in "it performs a better job," not better as in "we'd better release a new version to keep our market share."
"'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.' "
Yeah, like phasing out support for older OS's. And putting in new formats for the next Office iteration. I had to buy the new Office for home because those who upgraded never remember to downgrade. Not to mention that if you don't have a service contract you pay $X (I forget the number) per service call. I'm sure there are more instances of how "buy once, this is TCO" is wrong, but I'm not up to date on MS's current procedures.
What's the cost of OSS? Learning curve? Like Office 2007 didn't cause most people fits when it was released? I don't use Linux, so I'm no fanboy, but that statement was just ridiculous.
(Oh, and I graduate with my MIS degree tonight! Sorry, just happy.)
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The total cost of a windows box, the entire cost of ownership, is the up front cost of the MS software? Really?
Jesus, I've been a fool for using Linux on my personal systems. Why, considering all the man hours I've put into it, I would have saved virtually hundreds of dollars by paying for a quality Microsoft product!
I'm going to run out right away and buy a new operating system! Looking forward to never having to configure anything, and having a bug free system that does everything I want!
(Mods - Joke. Really.)
Dr Cheikh Modibo Diarra, stated 'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.' This is very misleading, as the "cost" is a combination of this, plus the support. You are then at the mercy of Microsofts schedule for repairs, updates, and if they consider your problem worth the effort to correct. This can be very costly in direct dollars in downtime and productivity. I can imagine an office going down due to a language package error, actually I don't have to. I have seen a language pack that broke an entire office due to a system update which was incompatible with some element within. And you then sit waiting for a week for someone, somewhere to apply a fix. This is not an issue with open source, as you then have access to every bit of the system, including the source code. A weeks downtime, for a "one time cost" or back up in an hour for a variable cost, your choice.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Of course you only buy it once. By the time the next version comes out it is so bloated, full of new DRM, in need of new video cards to handle the latest DirectX version, and just plain overall inefficient, that you need a new system to run it - which unavoidably comes with the next version of Windows preloaded.
Per processor licensing should have been banned long ago.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Does that mean only MS users will get spam from Nigeria?
Hmmm... The article is a bit misleading.
In Africa, Microsoft faces strong competition from open-source software in particular the Linux operating system. Many use that and run run free counterparts to the Microsoft Office suite.
This is completely deceptive. The only people I know who runs Linux are students, programmers or web hosts. Run of the mill people do not use Linux at all. OpenOffice on Windows is used a little bit more often â" usually by people who cannot get a pirated version of MS Office.
There really is not incentive to use non-MS products. MS gives away all its software to university students and windows for the classrooms.
Microsoft's biggest competitor is pirated Microsoft software.
Open source in Africa? How much open source? How much purchased Microsoft? How much pirated Microsoft?
I bet Open Source + Pirated Microsoft >> Purchased Microsoft.
I guess (but can't prove) Open Source > Purchased Microsoft.
Maybe even Ubuntu > Purchased Microsoft.
Certainly Ubuntu developers in Africa > Microsoft developers in Africa.
Wow. So all that money that we're spending hiring administrators, paying for software support and beating applications with a crowbar until they run properly is _completely unnecessary!_ I have been such a fool for all of these years. All I needed to do was pay the sticker price for a copy of Windows Server and that would have been enough for everything!
*cough cough cough* *mumble* *cough cough*
'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'
This just proves he's been listening to Microsoft too long. He's using Microsoft's favorite buzzword without even thinking whether his statement makes sense. The purchase price is not the total cost of ownership. Not even Microsoft is claiming that.
Even they will admit that TCO includes training and support. Microsoft's argument is that there are a lot more Microsoft-trained personnel than Linux-trained, so you don't have to train them yourself, or pay them as much because there are plenty of others with the same skill set willing to take their place. And technical support from Microsoft is free. But you still need to pay administrators or a whole IT dept, whether you buy Microsoft or Linux.
Only someone with a religious devotion to the Microsoft idealogy would claim that TCO only includes the purchase price.
To be fair, anyone who claims that Linux has no associated costs is just as much a zealot on the other side.
As for "you buy it once and for all," that's untrue. You buy it now, you buy it again when you want to put it on another computer, and then you buy it all over again, for all of those computers, when Microsoft tells you to upgrade. If you're big enough, you get a bulk discount. Depending upon how long it is between upgrade cycles, buying Microsoft still might be the cheaper option, but it's disingenuous to claim that you only have to buy it once.
Actually, if your point is that you only need to pay for it once, Linux still comes out ahead because you get it free, once and for all.
I haven't done any studies so I have no idea whether Microsoft or Linux has a higher TCO. But Dr. Diarra's statement is blatantly untrue.
The last time I checked an M$ Eula, you don't actually own any code you pay for. you are actually paying a use license. M$ retains ownership rights to the software.
"Software is the difference between hardware and reality"
Whenever I hear someone in the U.S. say that, it's usually quickly followed by a Microsoft or BSA representative calling them to clarify that the term "ownership" means "we still own it, we're just giving you a license to use it, and if you want more, you will pay us more."
If this guy genuinely believes Microsoft products are a "buy once, own forever" proposition, I think he's in for a bit of a shock once the install base reaches critical mass.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'
It was when he said this that the fine print started to appear:
* Price does not include technical support, which is free for the first two sessions, but USD $99 for further sessions (and per hour via telephone), the price of new computers you will have to buy to feed our bloated clock-cycle-consuming system, the costs of upgrades,, the extra cost of Office, or the rediculous amounts of money you'll need before we give you a look at the source code, which will require you to sign an NDA. Microsoft claims no responsibility for health issues caused by our OS, including, but not limited to, cranial damage you'll get after banging your head against the wall in frustration of our poorly-designed un-interoperable amalgamation of legacy support and psychosis caused by using our compulsory poorly-maintained virus-catching browser. Offer only good on Windows Vista Starter.
Sounds like an easy choice for Africa.
Trying to promote Linux in places like Africa that are still working on their IT industries could be perceived as paternalistic. The sad, sad fact is that the majority of the western world uses MS Windows, and that if you try and say that despite this, African users should embrace Linux - it can come across as if you are fobbing them off with something second rate. You aren't, of course, but that isn't how the Microsoft Ministry of Truth is going to spin it.
The best way to promote Linux in developing markets is to promote it in developed markets. Countries that want to build their IT industry will, logically, look to how its done in countries with successful IT industries. Any increase in the Linux user base in the United States or Europe will be mirrored by an increase in much of the rest of the world.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I bought Vista once, pirated XP twice, and now Kubuntu hasn't cost me anything!
MS products are cheap and they teach you a lot about Unix and FOSS philosophy!
"You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership."
You can't really expect me to think that people in Africa are that fucking stupid to believe this line of bullshit...
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Quoth Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra:
You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.
Now consider Microsoft Money, as reviewed by CNet:
Unfortunately, you'll be forced to upgrade periodically if you rely upon either application's links to online financial institutions--that access expires every other year for Money and after every three versions for Quicken.
Most folks here knew the idea of "TCO is paid upfront" was disingenuous to say the least, for any software. There's training costs, upgrade costs ("our whole company just had to switch to Office 2007..."), and so forth. This is even true for open-source; just consider the time and energy spent by developers moving to new source control systems, ala CVS -> SVN -> (git,hg,bzr). But here, we also have the great fun of a bald-faced lie! So how many other MS products have explicit obsolescence logic?
You don't buy the software, you license it until the next version of Windows comes out and your software becomes incompatible with that, and your computer has virtually no resale value as the software has to be totally wiped else you risk a visit from the BSA. And according to Gartner the TCO for a company to support Windows was $9,784 per anum per computer (1997). You think it's come down in the mean while :)
davecb5620@gmail.com
That only the government and the largest enterprises are buying software, all the rest is pirated.
So "Free/Open Source" software is at exactly the same price as "Closed Source" software.
And there is a sick fascination with "the rich people" although they became rich by ripping you off.
And the main supperiority of "Closed Source software" is that it gives more opportunity for "back door handlings"...
And of course the "donor organisations" are much better at recommending "nice donor nation originated products" than local "service"...
And thus the blood of africa is still flowing out to the occidental world...
Instead he'll end up with Linux and Open Office if the gov't cracks down on pirates, and MS will be entirely out of the picture.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
We're about to see the end of per-processor licensing, so you may get your wish.
They're moving to per-core and per-VM now. That makes much better sense.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
He was kind enough to set me up, via email, with a very lucrative business deal where I stand to make huge profits.
Of course, my upfront costs keep mounting, but he assured me when he asked for my account numbers that the funds will shortly be directly deposited to my bank.
1. The school teaches the UK curriculum; when I was last speaking with the person at the UK school who established the link with the Ugandan school, she'd said they'd had some new computers with Ubuntu installed on them shipped out but they didn't have the software expected by the board that set the curriculum they were teaching. Maybe that's the curriculum's fault, maybe it was a misunderstanding, either way, it doesn't solve the issue, even if it's a problem of perception and knowledge.
2. Related to the above, some people have the attitude "Everywhere else in the world runs Windows, surely teaching something else is a disadvantage?"
3. Few people knew how to use computers, and people usually have experience in Windows when you do find someone that's used computers. Finding someone to help with a computer is hard, finding someone who can help with Linux may be harder (though I guess the converse may be true where Linus is prevalent and Windows is not).
4. Lack of networks to search for help when things go wrong. We made an effort to take learning materials out with us, both for the kids and for the teacher to learn more (and not just about Linux), but it's difficult to provide enough documentation to cover every eventuality. Arguably Windows has the same issue but I don't think it has it to the same degree.
I was walking a fine line - on the one hand, I didn't want to treat the learning of the kids at the school as some sort of social/computing experiment to the degradation of their education, but on the other hand, I think open source could be a great thing in those sorts of situations.
I'll also add that for the time I spent there, I only saw a tiny part of Africa, so hopefully other people have more enlightening experiences to share!
Dear Sir, I am a minister in the Office of Software. A recent license audit has uncovered $1.6 billion (ONE BILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND USD) of software licenses in an account at the ministry. The account was for a project that was killed in a planning accident on the way to implementation. Since there was no next project for the licenses the licenses have gone unclaimed. I am asking your assitance in getting the licenses out of my country. As teh minister I can certify you as the regestered lincense owner. For your troubles I will give you 20% of teh licenses. If you are interested in this offer please reply.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Microsoft isn't even trying to come up with convincing lies anymore:
"You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership."
Really? What about the cost of upgrades? Does Microsoft give away subsequent versions with new features and bug fixes? No.
And ownership? Really? More like rental. The sticker price indicated the initial cost of rental.
What about the cost of anti-virus software needed to give the illusion of protecting Microsoft software from itself? What about the millions of man-hours each year lost while said anti-virus brings Microsoft-based computers around the world to a screeching halt for extended periods of time? Is all that supposed to be already factored out of the price of Microsoft software? No.
The cost of Microsoft software only begins with the purchase price, and is only a tiny, tiny fraction of what you end up paying.
The big advantage of Microsoft is that you can buy it on a disk.
The big advantage of Ubuntu is that Canonical will send you, free of charge, an entire Operating System, complete with application stacks, on a DVD if you ask.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Free MS software is like free cigarettes. Microsoft's advantage is lock-in with OEM's and bribes. Plenty of idiots use computers and most people probably don't even know what the windows are. Microsoft success in Africa in today's world of OSS options will be a good measure of the level of corruption by those government.
Same here, they could get some things right from time to time, just not in software!
Hello Dear Friend In God,
My name is Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra. I have found you because I need a trustworthy individual in whom I can place my modalities of confidence. I am in possession of 10,000,000 copies of Microsoft Vista. I would like to transfer them all to you for next to nothing. You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership. Please reply with:
Your name
Your address
Your telephone number
Your bank account information
Sincerely,
Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra
Like Richard Stallman said at the WSIS Tunis panel discussion 2005: This is electronic colonization, i.e. the Africans are supposed to pay for foreign products and remain ignorant and dependent.
Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra, who alludes that open source continually costs you money by saying 'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.'
Look, I'm no Linux fanboy*. But Ubuntu is not only free-as-in-beer, not only more stable, not only more powerful but there's a whole community who's idea of recreation is waiting for people like my 50-something friend I installed the distribution for to help with any problems he might have.
Like... Holy Christ, they charge you for new versions of their OS, in complete and outright, obvious contradiction of the quote above. In what way is there even a competition there?
*Disclaimer: I am. But you should take me seriously anyway.
Property is theft.
So why does every update to Windows cost me $100?
Squirrel!
As somebody who currently keeps the paychecks coming by being there when the software that my employer "bought once and for all" breaks in various horrible ways; I can tell you that "the cost that we tell you" is very much not the "total cost of ownership".
What he MEANT was that in Africa, you don't have the BSA, so you don't have to worry about surprise audits, keeping track of licensing, and fees for not doing so. See, he wasn't lying!
LOLOLOLOLOL
I'm a manager at a /major/ East-African health-care organization based in Uganda.
Years ago (before I arrived) someone had a highly customized Microsoft Navision system put in for our HMS/ERP system.
If we want to modify anything more in-depth than what color a button is we have to call up a Microsoft Licensed Consultant who has a key-file on a USB stick that allows them access to the inner-workings of the system -- and pay them hourly.
This system is the beating fucking heart of our organization and we can't even make something a required field or modify the validation of an entry without calling these circus clowns up.
The default license allows access by 36 simultaneous users. Guess how much Microsoft Nairobi forces us to pay per-user when we want to add more? try EIGHT HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS PER SEAT -- AFTER DISCOUNT.
Want to store more information than we currently do? BUY MORE DATABASE TABLES.
Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra either has no idea what he's talking about or is an outright fucking liar, because Microsoft has nothing anywhere near a business model that works for Africa.
We can't wait to get off their system.
I don't think anybody said all Windows machines are part of botnets, but millions upon millions are, so I would't call "FUD" here. In fact, when choosing an operating system it may be wise to consider what percent of all attacks/exploits/viruses/phishing attacks or what have you are targeting a given OS. If, for example, your research tells you that there 97% of all attacks are targeting platform A, and 2.5% of all attacks target platform B, and only 0.5% target platform C, then it may be a good idea to buy into platform B or C, as platform A in this example would be just asking for trouble. Now I would simply call this good, common sense advice, not FUD.
Now someone may argue that it is not entirely fair to blame Microsoft's operating systems for this problem. Perhaps it has more to do with the fact that we happen to have a very unhealthy monoculture of Microsoft OSes, so they became a magnet for malware developers. We can't blame Microsoft for the fact that they build the most popular operating systems in the world - oh wait - perhaps it is their monopolistic anti-competitive practises and lock-in that made theirs the most popular operating system in the world, and the fact that it is now the most targeted platform in the world is all their chickens coming home to roost.
I essentially run a very large free software project in Africa, which is a pan African project, including folks in Nigeria called AVOIR (http://avoir.uwc.ac.za). The FUD that we encounter on a daily basis from the MS evangelists is quite amazing sometimes, as well as highly entertaining. The big issue here is that licence vendors are allowed into schools, and Free software is kicked out. This sets up a skill set for the kids that is purely MS based for later on, much like drug dealing and addiction IMHO
'You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it once and for all, the cost that we tell you is the total cost for ownership.
So I bought my Microsoft software? Excellent, I'll just get that OEM XP disk containing the software I now own and install it on all 320 of my office's PCs. If only I'd known this from the start I wouldn't have bought 320 of those pesky licence things that I don't need because I actually bought the software without realising it.
Silly me.
Few people in poor countries buy Windows... So Linux has no price advantage.
What does Linux offer than for the desktop user?
Not much, besides disadvantages in terms of usability and software compatibility (don't even bother telling me GNOME/KDE is up to Vista let alone Windows 7).
Which might explain why Linux isn't very popular... anywhere.
You could preach all you want on how Linux makes a better business plan than Windows.
But the sad fact is that, because you are preaching from a Western pedestal, Africa will not listen. Go and read up on the AfriCar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africar) and learn from the mistakes made there.
The Africans want to be treated as full human beings capable of making their own mistakes (and hopefully learning from them).
Also you have to answer several things:
1. If Linux is so great then why is the vast majority of the western world using Windows? (It's not an easy one to answer, trust me!)
2. Suppose Linux is great, and we build wonderful apps on it, then who can we sell those apps to if the buyers are running Windows?
The patronizing attitude will not win friends and influence people.
We have been hit by a nasty virus and the net connection is down, so we can't get updates to fix it. I'm lucky, I have GPRS, but that is a personal connection and not sufficient to fix NUST. Re-installation lasts about a day.
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
Ion.simIAn.c - Prove what you claimed about being a professional programmer below (because all your errors from the past week now & more don't show any of us you are that is certain, lol!) & tell us more about the Gigabyte IRAM being a piece of trash (it works on Windows, but not Linux according to YOU @ least, so what is the "trash" here? Obviously the OS you use & its SATA access most likely - however, based on your lack of technical acumen below? Lately, I am leaning towards YOU not knowing what you're doing with the IRAM, or Linux, lol!).
You "StRaNgeLy" (not, it's obvious WHY you do) keep avoiding the questions below, even though I PROVE you do see my "A/C" posts, here -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1230601&cid=27949607 via 'baiting' you so easily (rotflmao on THAT one, boy - you surely are NOT intelligent), like you tried to get to go to some 10 yr. old post @ arstechnica (no way, not THAT stupid here)...
So answer the questions below:
"I'm a programmer." - by ion.simon.c (1183967) on Saturday May 02, @11:17PM (#27803057)
Really? Prove to us you are a professional programmer, ion.simIAn.c, won't you?
After all, you CLAIMED that you are above, & demanded others do so as well, here:
"You claim that you're a professional. Prove it" - by ion.simon.c (1183967) on Sunday May 03, @08:52PM (#27811101)
Ok, same question you asked ME to prove & I did, via the "My Name is Ozymandias" lists below you no longer question (along w/ other proofs I gave you but when YOU are asked for the same proofs? YOU RAN!)
See the lists below (contact the magazines, publishing houses, or software companies involved @ your discretion, if you wish)... because it truly IS a pleasure watching you stick your foot in your mouth, each time you falsely accuse myself & others here.
So - professional technically means getting PAID to do a job, right? That's there below in the "My Name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair" list, in fact, 1st entry...
Funniest part is? When I and others (MEK_LoveBug) asked YOU to prove YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMER, as you claimed you were? You RAN, lmao!
----
"Google failed to find any offical mention of your work with Russinovich" - by ion.simon.c (1183967) on Monday May 04, @10:57PM (#27825779)
GOOGLE didn't fail, YOU DID (as usual, per this reply AND the list of your screwups here I enumerate below in this exchange)...
See this -> http://www.pcmech.com/article/defragging-the-windows-page-file/ (& the comment by "SuperFluid" there)
YOU can't even GOOGLE something right, lol...
You're only showing yourself as what you really are: Nothing more than a "I can't do anything w/out GOOGLE" type online...
SO, AGAIN - YOU say you're a programmer? PROVE IT!
(So, how do you like it? After all, that's the kind of crap you've been saying to me & I provide proof below... and, you do not, & YOU have NOTHING LIKE THE LISTS I PROVIDE BELOW, to your credit)
----
"I've emailed Mr. Russinovich to figure out what work that you've done with him" - by ion.simon.c (1183967) on Monday May 04, @10:57PM (#27825779)
For Sunbelt Software (I'll save you the time there) to whom we contracted out wares we had written, thru LC Tech!
(& also MANY years later, in 2003, when I fixed up his pagedefrag program, instructing him where it was hardcoded and how/why it could adversely affect the operations of his application if people moved their pagefile.sys location AND eventlogs (which is doable on both accounts, & he STILL has a hardcode to the latter) to another disk (he had th
"You buy Microsoft software, and you buy it [, and you buy it [, and you buy it [, and you buy it [, and you buy it [, ...]]]]]."
can American still be rely on after this financial crisis?
See subject line above, "drink it in & digest it":
Your mod down doesn't alter the facts/truths within my post above that are proven by quotes of "the great ion.SIMIAN.c" (not) himself, one iota -
(Heck, if anything? Your "off topic mod down" of my post will attract readers here to my view my original posts' content)...
So, to that down mod of my original post above? I can only THANK you!
APK