I am trying to continue the experiment to migrate from a Linux box to a complete and full-fledged FOSS-Windows computer, but the mission is getting more and more difficult as time proceeds. This week I had my first real relapse and went back to my 'old' SuSE Linux distribution.

What a terrible system this Windows concept is for people in Africa! When you buy a computer you get the very, very basic functionality and then you need to shop around for all these things that change your computer from a useless thing into a useful tool. Your office applications, your software development tools, databases, your games not to forget (unless you are satisfied with the dullest card games you can find in the world), your preservatives to protect you from the terrible viral diseases in the Windows world, a decent Internet browser and email client etc. etc.. It is a bit like renting a house without furniture and they have also forgotten to put doors and windows to keep the burglars out.
Getting the software is not a big deal in the developed world. You can go to a specialized retailer and buy the software that you need, or if you get your credit card and buy all your 'soft' goodies online. If you want to use Open Source Software to create a tool that can help you in your daily activities, you download the software for free from the different sites. It is all so simple and straightforward - it seems!
When you are in Africa getting software is not straightforward at all. Let us look at the things that you need in order to get software on the precious computer¹ that you have acquired with the little money that you have: 1. Internet connection, 2. a credit card and 3. above all, money. Where, in Europe, the USA and large parts of Asia (as I am told - next month I will go there on a 'field trip' for the first time in my life) Internet access has become a commodity, in most parts of Africa it is something that is extremely exclusive and therefore expensive. Just an example from my own experience: The cheapest Internet connection that you can get in Bujumbura is $75 for a shared 32Kbps connection. That is about two monthly salaries of a watchman or a third of the monthly salary of a university lecturer at the University of Burundi. Then if you have the money and get yourself an Internet connection, try to download the software that you need first on every Windows computer: AutoPatcher (about 220Mb), a virus scanner (Free AVG also over 20Mb with the virus definitions) and you pray that you have SP2 installed on you machine by the shop where you bought your computer! (Thanks Reinier). That is many hours of downloading, and then you just have your computer protected against virus and worm-building idiots. Now the real work start: Open Office (106Mb), Lyx and MikTex (400Mb), XAMPP (30Mb), VLC (9Mb), Thunderbird (6Mb), Firefox (5Mb), Eclipse (100+Mb), Java SDK (100+Mb), selected games, etc. I am now already a month in the process to get all the things that I need onto my machines. I'm halfway my list. My download limit for the month (1Gb) is finished!
There is some software that needs payment (or that is so good that you want to donate to the development team of the software). You use your credit card? But people in Africa do not have credit cards! If you are very rich, or very important and you ask the bank manager (and give him some money as well) you can get a debit card. That's all! The numbers having a debit card are so small that we can forget about it. This implies that we people in Africa cannot buy on the Internet. Finally the money issue. How can you expect people to buy software at all in countries where still about 30% of the people try to survive on less than one US Dollar a day!². The article of Rishab Ghosh where he relates the license fees of some of Microsoft products (Windows and Office XP) to the GDP per Capita provides some data to support the argument³.
After a long introduction I get to title: Relapse - 1. This week I lost it! I went back to my Linux machine. Again frustration levels were pumped up to the max when I had to download software for the FOSS-Windows machine that is standard delivered with my SuSE distribution. An unstable Internet connection combined with another large download was enough to shut down the Windows machine and move back to my old Linux machine. What a relief! What a wealth of software! What a beautiful interface does my KDE Desktop have! It had an uptime of 53 days and all worked fine (I do not understand why Windows always wants to restart or why it gets so slow when you are so stubborn not to restart). The whole installation comes from one single DVD. All the software packages that you need to make your machine into a powerful tool for personal productivity, software development, games playing, etc. No further downloads, no further payments. The perfect solution for Africa. And if you want, it is delivered to your door step (Ubuntu is shipped free to your PO box - shipit.ubuntu.com).

If the FOSS-Windows machine would not have been so sexy and so fast compared to my old Compaq, I would have stopped the experiment by simply abandoning it. These days I find it (again) very difficult to understand why all people around me use Windows. The system of buying a tool box without tools or a house without furniture, windows and doors doesn't work here. We do not have the Internet connection to download the software, we do not have to money to pay for it and we cannot buy it since we do not have a credit card. I wish I could make more people to understand this. However in spite of this all, I will hibernate the Linux machine again and continue with the experiment.

Footnotes:

1. See the excellent publication of Alison Gillwald (Editor - that means that you write the introductory chapter yourself and leave the real work to be done by others) describing the ICT Access and Usage of Households and Individuals across 10 African Countries (can be downloaded on: www.researchICTafrica.net.


2. Check the website of the UN Development Program (www.undp.org) to check the latest figures on the staggering poverty in Africa.


3. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Licence Fees and GDP per Capita: The Case of Open Source in Developing Countries. First Monday, Vol. 8, Number 12. 2003. Download