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As part of FOSS Advocacy in West Africa and Beyond - (FOSSWAY), Worlali Senyo recently captured key findings in a comparison of Proprietary Software (PS) and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) usage in Ghana. Below is a summary of his findings.

Most people use Proprietary Software

The study showed that in the desktop environment Windows OS dominated by as much as 84.7% whiles Linux OS constituted 11.9% followed by 3.4% for Unix OS of respondents. It was observed that the reason for Windows OS dominating is because desktop computers bought came with Windows OS pre-installed. Other reasons where attributed to the ease of use and availability of applications, and technical support.

Yet these are not always legal Windows licenses. There is a worrying trend of wide use of pirated PS, especially Microsoft Windows and Windows based applications. In actual fact some users in Ghana think that all software can be downloaded and shared for free.

Differences in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

The study asked respondent to rank key setup-cost factors (software licenses, hardware, technical support, and training for staff) on a scale from 1 (least) to 5 (most) and it emerged that hardware cost contributed significantly to overall set-up cost ranking 4 for PS and 3 for FOSS. Software licenses where less significant in their contribution to set-up cost for FOSS ranking 2 compared to PS which ranked 4.

On technical support FOSS was ranked 3 whiles PS ranked 4. Finally, Training was ranked 3 for both PS and FOSS. Although the study did not include specific questions on piracy, the research team gathered that software piracy was high especially amongst individual users.

Challenges to FOSS use

The major challenge the study identified was the absence of any FOSS policy in Ghana and the existing procurement policy does not clearly stipulate terms for procuring software. It is interesting to note that in the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) a software is defined as "something you buy a license for" which basically saying means we do not consider FOSS.

Users still have the perception that FOSS solutions are complex to use. Another dominant challenge cited in the study is the lack of support for FOSS solutions. Others include compatibility, too frequent updates and too many OS types.

Congrats to ict@innovation for launching the first East African Regional FOSS Business Models Course that seeks to answer the key question of "How can African IT-businesses make money with Free and Open Source Software?"

This advanced course will bring together over 20 experts from universities, training institutions and private sector in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. Its main goal is to form a corps of trainers and advocates who are equipped to spread the word on Free and Open Source and its potential for IT-companies in Africa. The course inter alia builds on more than eight practical case studies of African IT companies, who use FOSS to generate income drive innovation, add local value and provide legal, low-cost and high quality software solutions to businesses and administrations in their countries.

Inveneo Certifed ICT Partner, James Wire of Linux Solutions was moved to tears by the opening ceremonies:

"On August 31st 2009, on a good Ugandan monday morning, I was invited to address the participants as the General Secretary of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, I could hardly hold back my tears of excitement. Not only did I appreciate how far we have come, I also quickly made a mental comparison of how we used to previously confine our Open Source discussions to evening drinking sprees in dimly lit dingy pubs and now here we were in a state of the art four star hotel with Open Source being the reason. The two weeks training has brought together participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

The most unique aspect about this training is that all the content was prepared by Africans with African experiences in mind. This was intentionally done to ensure that the skills and knowledge passed on does not become a white elephant for the participants. With many African countries having lots of similarities in terms of society setup and management, I believe a lot of fruit will come out of this training."

See more about FOSSFA and InWEnt launching first East African regional course on Business and Open Source in Kampala, Uganda