Re: LINK: Africa: The Linux Continent? (fwd)

["Mukund" <betacomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Simply great!!!

|NAIROBI, Kenya -- Every Friday afternoon, Githogori wa Nyangara-Murage
|holds free computing seminars to young programmers in his cluttered office.
|
|
|"The free software model makes sense for Africa. It puts Africa and
|the rest of the world on an equal level," Githogori says.


Not only Africa but For the entire third world.


|
|Robert Bunyi, a research analyst with Equity Stockbrokers, attributes
|the high cost of proprietary software to be a major contributing factor
|to rampant software piracy in Africa.
|
|For instance, the Windows operating system costs around US$100 and the
|Windows Office Suite applications may cost as much as US$800 in Kenya. In
|a continent where the average annual per capita income is less than
|US$250, proprietary software -- with its accompanying licensing
|difficulties -- is a major drawback for would-be Windows users.


India also stands close to $300.

|At the moment, however, software piracy is the biggest problem
|affecting the IT industry in Africa. Piracy rates in East Africa are
|estimated at 80 percent, according to Microsoft's Otieno.


We might be doing better here ;-)

|
|But it could backfire on the software giant. Microsoft's success in
|the anti-piracy war might lead to a backlash that could popularize the
|Linux model in Africa.


It's true, The linux growth in third world countries is hampered mainly due
to piracy.

Regards,
Mukund Deshmukh
Beta Computronics Pvt. Ltd.
Web Site - www.betacomp.com