IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 44

Difficult
4%
■

Very Easy
29%
Neutral
31%

Fig. 4. Rating for ease of use of OS
software.

Never
32%

Rarely
22%

Often
14%

Sometimes
22%

Fig. 5. Frequency with which
Windows users encounter
technical problems.

Sometimes
7%

Very Often
4%
Often
18%

Never
39%

Rarely
32%

Fig. 6. Frequency with which
Linux or other OS operating
systems users encounter technical
problems.

savings that can be incurred in
the near future by the adoption
of open-source technologies.
How the stakeholders find
solutions to their technical

■

OSS Policy - Proposed ICT
Framework

Easy
36%

Very
Often
10%

problems. This was to get an
idea of the number of users
who take recourse to online
forums.
Propositions about what can
be done to promote OS policy
in Mauritius.

The adoption of OS technologies, in
particular in private enterprise, will
be of high value and provide solutions to today's technology problems for Mauritius and many other
developing countries. However, the
barriers to OS software adoption
must be addressed if the benefits
that these technologies offer are to
be realized. Government participation and support in terms of policy implementation, infrastructure
development, financing research,
and development with respect to
OS software can be a crucial factor
for the success of the OS business
market [2], [20]. Based on information gathered from the 2011 Mauritius survey, an ICT framework is
proposed for individual users, companies, and developers.
Proposed Policies to Benefit
Individual Users
The following policies are proposed to help encourage individuals in developing countries to use
OS software:
■ Create awareness campaigns
[2], [17] to popularize OS
software and their benefits for
both desktop computers and
laptops. This will also fight
software piracy. Marketing
campaigns can be launched on
social networks like facebook
to reach a maximum number of stakeholders. Copies of
OS software, such as Linux,
may also be distributed to the
population to encourage them
to try the software and eventually adopt it. Results gathered
from the 2011 Mauritius survey with respect to the ease of
installation, maintenance, and

■

use of OS software, and the
frequency with which proprietary and OS software users
encounter technical problems
are presented in figs. 3 to 6.
Use OS software at primary
schools and tertiary institutions so that new generations
become acquainted with this
new paradigm for developing
applications and promote its
use when they enter the job
market and become decision
makers or programmers. for
example, in a K-12 environment, kindergarten children
can be initiated to drawing
programs like the open source
GNU image manipulation
program (GIMP) instead of
Microsoft Paint. Later they
can be encouraged to use OS
desktop applications like Libre
Office rather than Microsoft
Office. At tertiary level, OS
software like Octave can be
used instead of Matlab. The
use of OS software in education will also help the government cut costs on software
installed on desktop computers like the IT@School project
in Kerala. furthermore, the
earlier a person is introduced
to OS software, the more experienced he/she will be with
tools of the OS community.
Provide the option to purchase
desktop computers or laptops
with OS software rather than
proprietary software, for example Linux instead of Windows, at a discounted price.
This is sensible since it will
exclude license cost of the proprietary software. Computer
vendors may also be sensitised to have OS utilities like
Google Chrome, LibreOffice,
ClamAV, Pidgin, Thunderbird,
GIMP, RythmBox, Linux Multimedia Studio and Inkscape
pre-installed on the computers
so that those purchasing the
machines are acquainted with
such OS software.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2013

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