[dot] F/OSS and KDE in Africa

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1080246273/

From: Uwe Thiem <uwe at kde.org>
Dept: united-we-stand
Date: Thursday 25/Mar/2004, @21:24

F/OSS and KDE in Africa
=======================

   54 people from 15 African countries and 16 facilitators/helpers from
outside Africa gathered in Okahandja, a small Namibian town, for African
Source [http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource] from 15th of March to
19th of March 2004. African Source was the first all African conference
of Free Software/Open Source Software (F/OSS) developers. Vladimir
Petkov (GNOME) and Uwe Thiem [http://www.uwix.iway.na/uwe.html] (KDE)
presented the current state of the open source desktop,  its strengths
and shortcomings.

     Main objective of the meeting was to get African developers
together to discuss the possibilities of F/OSS for developing countries.
Hot topics were: Wireless networking, special software like microfinance
applications, refurbished computers, total cost of ownership (TCO)
versus pirated proprietary software, thin client solutions and, of
course, the open source desktop.

     Vladimir and Uwe agreed early on not to do the usual GNOME vs. KDE
thing. Instead, they presented the common strengths and shortcomings of
both desktops. Attendants agreed that CUPS [http://www.cups.org/] and
its integration in either desktop bridged the gap in printing quality
between F/OSS and any proprietary operating software but wasn't robust
enough to suit users. Deleting an active print job can easily end up in
a nightmare. They also agreed that both desktops are generally ready to
fit into any business or  NGO [http://www.ngos.net/] environment. Good
accounting software was listed as a serious shortcoming.

     The computer lab of 25 boxes at African Source was powered by
OpenLab 3 [http://www.direqlearn.org], a South African linux
distribution geared at educational institutions, using KDE 3.2.

     All participants agreed on African Source 2 later this year,
tailored at the needs of users, businesses and NGOs.