1) I disagree with 1) most strongly, as most users can easily move to a new OS without noticing the difference. It all depends on what applications they’re using. If, as with most, it’s word processing, emails, spreadsheets – there’res all a minimal change. My organisation changed from Windows 98 to Fedora Linux, and users were ecstatic at the stability improvements, with almost no change in their workflow.

2) Support staff are needed, correct, although arguably it’s easier for them to administer Linux. Not as user friendly? Absolutely not. Have you used a modern Linux desktop? They’re racing ahead of Windows in many areas.

3) Applications less user-friendly? Well, you can’t generically say this. Which applications in particular?

4) That may be the case. There’s always Mono, the *nix version of .NET, but this would be an argument against a move. But does this apply to all users?

5) It still makes sense to use the best solution, no matter what funds are available.

6) Windows is more widely-used now, but there are abundant applications that run on both. Firefox as a browser, Thunderbird as an email client for example.

7) You may be surprised at how easy Linux drivers are to find, but before a move govt would need to do some research here to see the specifics.

A great argument FOR open source is that it can help build local capacity. Currently, the Nigerian govt is tied to a US company, paying out licence and support fees. You cannot access any source code to make changes, so there’s no possibility to build capacity. With Open Source, the opportunity would be there for Nigerian developers to develop solutions specific to the Nigerian situation and offer these to govt.

I don’t agree with the nationalistic definition of software – Open Source software by its nature is international, but local developers can quite easily tag something on specific to the local environment. Impi Linux, for example, tag onto Ubuntu, offering built in Sentech (a South African wireless provider) support on top. They market themselves as a South African distro for that reason, even if most of the base is international. At the same time, the developers gaining experience on that project are gaining valuable skills not available on proprietary systems.

Well here are my reasons why I think the linux distro wont work in a government organisation.

1. Intensive training and organisational restructuring is required to get the users to be able to get used to using it, besides accepting it.

2. There is the need for a support staff or crew to support most of the applications on the linux distro. It is not as user friendly as the ones which they are used too, thanks to Windows.

3. Most of the softwares that are used for government related transactions and audits are heavily built with .Net famework etc and only would work on Windows platform.

4. The government is not complaining of lack of funds in regards to getting a super friendly, comfortable windows platform.

5. Most developers develop desktop applications with Windows in mind, very few develop with Linux in mind, which makes me to ask, whether a linux tailored application would be cheap and easy to support.

6. You cant easily find linux drivers especially for those peripherals such as the ones used in government organisation example scanners, OCRs etc

So I would say linux is not really the answer to governmental needs, maybe we can introduce that to small scale organisations or industries that only type documents and use opensource web based applicatios.

We should always consider that most softwares used by the government would only work on a Windows platform!!

For One, we do have a Nigerian Operationg System. It’s called Wazobia Linux. It’s based on FC4 and they’ve actually started running demos for banks and a few Governement agencies.

Like Greenman says, moving to Linux desktops can be painless and cost effective. A while ago, while doing some research on Linux tools I came across a Linux Desktop called XPde. It’s frighteningly close to Windows XP and can make it that much easier for people who are used to Windows to migrate to Linux, it won’t fix all their problems but it’s a step in the right direction.

From the XPde website: “It’s a complete desktop environment for Linux on x86. It tries to make easier for Windows XP users to use a Linux box. Nothing more, no clipboard compatibility between Gtk and Qt applications, no emulation of Windows applications, no unification on the widgets of X applications, just a desktop environment.”

I’m pretty sure that if we looked hard enuff we could find some other sweet stuff that’d make it worthwhile.

Well, there’s my 50 kobo worth.

I moved my organisation to Linux desktops, and it was a painless and cost-effective process. In other situations it may not be. Government, where users have a fairly limited set of applications, would be ideal for a move, as many wouldn’t even notice the difference. And support is widespread, not just from the vendor.

These people forgot/don’t know there’s no way a software can be develop without getting external inputs.

Take a look at the .ng TLD, for years nothing has been done to make it see the light of the day. No wonder why government ministries have @yahoo.com as their official e-mail(this has even fuel the yahoo-yahoo boyz) trade.

I look to the day when Nigeria will wake up to the level Namibia’s IT awareness in government dealings.

Re-inventing the wheel by campaigning for “made in Nigeria” would be asking for too much, for now.

Linux is not the solution in the OS fronteir where it involves users that hardly know what a driver is, especially in a government organisation where we have staffs struggling with the super friendly windows OS. Lets be realistic here, there is nothing wrong with commercial software.

The problem with the Nigerian government is they dont know anything regarding the IT industry, so is the bodies that supposedly give them the advice. Yes I am saying they are not competent and smart enough to do the right thing.

The costs saved deploying an Open Source solution will be DOUBLED when you take into account the money you will need to spend to train all the users and System Administrators.

Also, I think the Federal government of Nigeria should adopt Open-Source operating systings, application software etc. It is way cheaper for a third world country like Nigeria.