Ubuntu In Africa

[elliotn]

I was wondering how much has the spirit of Ubuntu has spread
In Africa, well I mean as an OS. Where I leave I am the only one and have been trying to recruit my friends, but with the lack of net they are stuck with Ms while I do both. Makes me wonder how many in South Africa and Africa as whole uses Ubuntu coz I see America has the largest count.

[RichardLinx]

I don't live in Africa so I wouldn't know. :) If your friends don't have Internet and you think they would like Ubuntu you could install it on a USB so they can run it off that and become familiar with it. (Better then running a live CD which is quite slow).

[mips]

Not many at all.

[RichardLinx]

I always imagined that Ubuntu would be a little more wide spread in Africa.

[davidryder]

Yeah with the whole African Safari theme I would think the same... hehe

[RichardLinx]

Yeah with the whole African Safari theme I would think the same... hehe

Not to mention the fact that the word "Ubuntu" comes from Africa!

[elliotn]

Not all africans know what does ubuntu means, and yeah I was thinking with the theme of ubuntu being africa we were suppose to be many

[longtom]

Hep...

here's another one. Also South Africa.

I guess it is difficult to imagine in the so called first world, that not everybody in Africa has a PC, a fast DSL or wireless connection as well as the knowledge to work with it.

Actually - most never get the opportunity. In subsaharian Africa clean water is quite a priority, than running a PC without power also throws up some problems.

Taking these simple facts in account, apart from many, many others, it might not be quite as puzzling that not many people use Ubuntu...in fact most don't have access to a PC.

Having said that, I do know about projects in SA were rural schools get some old PCs and Xubunutu or some other lightweight distro gets used.

Way to little - but it does happen.

BTW - not all Africans speak the same language...:P - so not all Africans will know what Ubuntu means. It is a huge and diverse continent...have a look at a map or google earth.

Regards

longtom

[elliotn]

Last time I was shocked by universities who sells their old Pc in auctions while they could donate em to schools in rural areas. There they will be usefull even if they are old

[mips]

Last time I was shocked by universities who sells their old Pc in auctions while they could donate em to schools in rural areas. There they will be usefull even if they are old

Some companies refuse to donate their older stuff, they rather auction it off. They seem to think giving 'old' stuff away reflects negatively on their 'image'. A company I worked for scrapped thousands of PCs every year which then goes to their procurement section where they sell them off, they even have brand new stuff they cannot return but is not suited for the job.

SA needs a PC recycling initiative of sorts, where companies can just dump their stuff with or without recognition as they prefer.

[billgoldberg]

BTW - not all Africans speak the same language...:P - so not all Africans will know what Ubuntu means. It is a huge and diverse continent...have a look at a map or google earth.

Regards

longtom

Do you presume people here are idiots?

[saulgoode]

Last time I was shocked by universities who sells their old Pc in auctions while they could donate em to schools in rural areas. There they will be usefull even if they are old
That is indeed a shame; however, sometimes there is a requirement that old equipment be auctioned off. This is done not so much to recover costs, but to avoid any corruption, or even appearance of impropriety, whereby useful equipment is discarded and "associates" of the person scrapping the equipment are the ones receiving it.

This is a fairly common policy of larger enterprises. You can sometimes negotiate donations if you work with "higher-ups" in the company/school and convince them of the worthiness of your project.

[elliotn]

And still on that its a shame that even the internet cost are breaking bones, meaning an average kid who just discovered linux would actually struggle since most staff needs internet connection, thus he will be drove back into the obvious. Telkom, Vodacom, Mtn rates are high, last month I went to Polka to get iBurst but my area aint covered. Stuck with higher bundles of voda. Still waiting for neotel

[mips]

And still on that its a shame that even the internet cost are breaking bones, meaning an average kid who just discovered linux would actually struggle since most staff needs internet connection, thus he will be drove back into the obvious. Telkom, Vodacom, Mtn rates are high, last month I went to Polka to get iBurst but my area aint covered. Stuck with higher bundles of voda. Still waiting for neotel

A better option for those without adsl would be to use a distro where you get all the software on cd/dvd.

It is possible to get the ubuntu repos on dvd though, now you just have to distribute them.

[elliotn]

Mmm ja gud point there

[davidryder]

Do you presume people here are idiots?

Yes, I believe he does ;)

Actually, he sort of comes off as suggesting Africa is just a giant continent of savages living in mud-huts.

[longtom]

Do you presume people here are idiots?

No - not one second.

What I do presume is, that a lot of them have wrong perceptions about Africa. Not necesserily their fault. A lot of people don't hear about it in school, nor in the media apart from seeing a picture of Gaddafi, Mugabe or whoever is the flavour of the month for bad news.

Africa is very complex, and even well educated people living here all their lives, cannot fathom all of it.

Example:

I live in South Africa. South Africa has eleven (11) official languages and at least 3 times as many different cultures - all with their own habits, religions etc. Just imagine schools, further education... I mean you live in Carolina and your childs education will be in French or you live in Brugge and 6 year olds only can learn in Spanish or German - from primary school onwards. Not funny....

This is just 1 country of 47...


Actually, he sort of comes off as suggesting Africa is just a giant continent of savages living in mud-huts.

Well - you don't need to live in mud huts for not to have access to electricity and drinking water. Living in an urban informal settlement, where huge amounts of people in Africa live, is all it takes. No mud huts but corrugated iron huts, fearing for your live as a bonus - and hoping for a better future...

So - if you add all people, who have access to a computer and are able to pay one of the most expensive telecommunication rates in the world (as in South Africa) - together and see, how many actually use Linux in one or another form, the percentage might not be any lower than in the 1. world countries/continents.

That was all point I was trying to make...kind of....

Regards

longtom

[barrydirk]

Internet internet internet blooody internet. Yes wats even stranger about the fact that you dont see Ubuntu here in Sunny Sef Efrica is the fact that it is the brainchild of Mark Shuttleworth (Sorry Mark hope I spelt your surname right) who is a bloody South African. I love Ubuntu I realy do I love everything Linux but would somebody please for the love all things opensource release a distro where aplications are released via disk I dont know when Mark was last down here in South Africa but if I had to get a Internet conection with enough bandwith to download all the aplications I need for every distro I try out I might as wel buy a copy of Vista every month.

PS I have just about every usefull app for intrepid on dvd so if your sitting in a internet container someware in khaylitsha and cant get to a download email me and ask realy realy nicely I just might post it to you.

[Orlsend]

I live in Tunisia, north Africa, It was there and not in my home country where I learned about ubuntu.

Most of my friends use Ubuntu. I am thinking of hosting the Tunisian Jaunty Launch party!

[rudihawk]

Another South African Ubuntu user here! I was interested in Linux and stumbled across ubuntu by chance. Its true with the high costs of telecoms here I have to wait for the end of the month to see whether I have enough bandwidth to download the iso (most months I don't).

You don't see much of Ubuntu anyway, for my Matric(final school year) Computer Studies Research Project I did it on the prevelance of Open Source Software in South African business. I drew up the questionnaires, wrote the report etc etc, OSS accounts for a small miniority of all applications/OS used over here. So yea, until SEACOM is launched and until other telecoms improve the situation is not going to change in a hurry!

[Mehall]

Another South African Ubuntu user here! I was interested in Linux and stumbled across ubuntu by chance. Its true with the high costs of telecoms here I have to wait for the end of the month to see whether I have enough bandwidth to download the iso (most months I don't).

You don't see much of Ubuntu anyway, for my Matric(final school year) Computer Studies Research Project I did it on the prevelance of Open Source Software in South African business. I drew up the questionnaires, wrote the report etc etc, OSS accounts for a small miniority of all applications/OS used over here. So yea, until SEACOM is launched and until other telecoms improve the situation is not going to change in a hurry!

Will ShipIt, the free Ubuntu CD shipping, not go to South Africa?

[elliotn]

But I got my ubuntu disks via ship it

[Mehall]

But I got my ubuntu disks via ship it

Okay then, that reduces the issue of low bandwidth stopping you getting the iso [=

[rudihawk]

Okay then, that reduces the issue of low bandwidth stopping you getting the iso [=

Yea, I got my Dapper Disks through ship-it, although it took 6 weeks, and then when I went to collect them at the Post Office I had to pay a customs duty;) - maybe I was just unlucky?

[mips]

Okay then, that reduces the issue of low bandwidth stopping you getting the iso [=

Installing apps though could be an issue if you don't have some form of broadband. Ideally people need to obtain the repos on DVD.

[bigbrovar]

I am Nigerian, living in Nigeria.. heard about ubuntu in one of Nigeria's Biggest online forums. on a whole very few people use ubuntu thanks to pirated windows. i try to educate people about free software generally and i have installed ubuntu for quite a number of my friends. but would take a while for Nigerians to start using Free OS like Ubuntu.. many don't even know it exist .

[longtom]

@ bigbrovar,

love your signature!!;)

[newbie2]

Not all africans know what does ubuntu means, and yeah I was thinking with the theme of ubuntu being africa we were suppose to be many
i would suggest you spread the word then trough 'a well known person' by this video : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Experience_ubuntu.ogg
;)

[d0b33]

Internet is becoming cheaper in SA... and with the local only ADSL accounts running updates is now dirt cheap.

The only reason why we don't see so many linux users I believe is due to indoctrination, those who use windows are too afraid to try something different whereas people new to computers will be very open to learning something like Linux/ubuntu.

[Cousken]

Hey all,

I might not be South African but i live here now. d0b33, if you can tell me how to get decent priced internet i would very much appriciate it :) Right now i'm using vodacoms 3g net, which is 290ZAR a gig??

Crazy things... I used to live in Sweden, just the fact that i need to pay per megabyte is very upsetting, not to mention the prices. My uni gives me 50mb free a month, and after that they charge 1ZAR per meg...

[elliotn]

We also need to check for free net in this ripping MTN and VODACOM, last weekend I got free net From MTN and took advantage of it, take made me save my 150mb That cost me 139 ZAR on Voda

[infoseeker]

Another S. African here :)

Fortunateley I have dsl which is most definately required if you love linux. Linux on GPRS/3G or dialup would be painful.

I was having problems with disconnections from Telkom, and guess what? they installed fibre to me. YAAAAY. This is great...and with 4mb/s it's all I need. But I hope bandwidth costs come down in the foreseeable future. >>>> Seacom is on its way.

My friends/colleagues don't have time/interest in Linux :(

[mips]

I was having problems with disconnections from Telkom, and guess what? they installed fibre to me. YAAAAY.

Rotflmao. Yeah right.

[mips]

Hey all,

I might not be South African but i live here now. d0b33, if you can tell me how to get decent priced internet i would very much appriciate it :)

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=129

See the stickies and maybe just browse the rest to get an idea.

[Junkieman]

Howsit, I live in S.A. too, been using Ubuntu since Edgy. I have to admit, not having decent net takes the fun out of it.

Going through my job I download releases, and burn copies for people I know, and still the only one that uses it daily.

I'm thinking of supporting Neotel, but finding info of their hardware on Linux is tricky, since they're so new.

Anyway, nice hot summer on it's way in here in S.A, summer rains already hitting us here on the coast :D

[lsdmoleleki]

ubuntu is still small in africa but i predict aafter the world cup and even now more n more young south africans are experimenting with technology!!:popcorn: