| WAZOBIA LINUX.Nigeria
wins software independence
By SOLA FANAWOPO
Wednesday, February1, 2006
 |
photo:Sun publishing
|
|
Nigeria has joined the league of nations that have succeeded
in liberating thier citizens from the exploitative clutches
of proprietary and hyper-commercial operating system (OS)
software by developing local version of Linux as a credible
and affordable alternative.
Leapsoft, a company owned by a group of young Nigerians has
developed a customized OS for the country on the open source
Linux platform. It is the first made in Nigeria operating
system.
Several countries have exploited the opportunities the open
source platform offered to develop OS and successfully cut
their people over from the use of proprietary software such
as Microsoft and Apple Macintosh. China did it with RedFlag
Linux, South Africa with Ubuntu Linux, Germany with Suse Linux.
Aptly named Wazobia Linux, a coinage from the three major
languages in Nigeria; Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, the OS was developed
by Nigerians for Nigerian and the global open source community.
Wazobia Linux delivers quality desktop computing solutions
that combine the best of open source technologies with a corporate
attention to completeness, usability, and support. It represents
the next step in the evolution of the desktop computing in
Nigeria.
The OS is accessible in Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, making Nigerians
feel more at home in their computing environment.
According to Bolaji Onibudo, LeapSoft Chief Software Architect,
Wazobia Linux presents everything today's computer user needs
for home computing and computing-on-the-go.
These he said include a stabilized, secured, stable and reliable,
user-friendly Linux based operating system plus a complete
set of desktop applications including, office suite, Web browser,
instant messaging client, multimedia viewers, and graphical
software.
It also offers the latest open source applications for developing
applications, setting up a home network, running a Web server,
and more.
"Wazobia Linux includes more than 16,000 pieces of software,
but the core desktop installation fits on a single CD. The
OS is accessible in Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, to make Nigerians
feel more at home in their computing environment,"he
told Daily Sun.
According to him, the key benefits of Wazobia Linux include
affordability, accessibility in native Nigerian Languages
and English, great look and feel complete web, instant messaging,
e-mail applications office suite, graphics, digital-photo
organizers, out of the box spam blocker, firewall, anti-virus
protection, printed user manual, installation support, advanced
home networking and development tools.
Some of the end user features of the OS are easy web browsing
with Firefox 1.0 web browser plus additional popular web browsers
including Konqueror, Mozilla, Opera, and Epiphany; the latest
Linux desktop environments completely refreshed with new designs,
updated applications and powerful new features; OpenOffice
2.0 for complete word processing, business presentations,
spreadsheet and graphics; easy desktop search offering search
functions for everything on the desktop including associated
files, web pages, and chat archives; extensive multi-media
tools including RealPlayer and other easy-to-use media players
and a professional video-editing tool, making it easy to view
multimedia files and streaming audio or video feeds and create
CDs or DVDs.
Other user features include enhanced mobility for laptop users
with improved support for the most popular chipsets including
Intel Centrino and automatic recognition of Bluetooth-enabled
devices via the operating systems' central configuration and
administration tool facilitates quick and easy access to wireless
networks.
Wazobia Linux advanced features include home networking essentials
such as an integrated firewall, SAMBA, CUPS, APACHE, Powerful
peer-to-peer file distribution with Ktorrent clients, application
development tools such as Eclipse, Mono and Kdevelop, run-time
application environments such as J2EE.
Besides, Wazobia Linux include all the most important content
plug-ins to extend the usability of the desktop. They include
Adobe reader, Java Runtime, and Flash.
While advancing reasons for venturing into the development
of OS on the open source platform, Onibudo argued that most
countries are migrating from Windows and Apple Mac platforms
to Linux because of the issues of cost and affordability.
"When switching from Windows to Linux, 75 per cent reduction
in hardware cost and hardware maintenance cost are not uncommon."
Specifically, he explained that class hardware cost up to
75 per cent less when using Wazobia Linux. "Not only
that, the move to commodity hardware drives an annual hardware
maintenance cost drop of up to 90 per cent."
Besides, he said though commercial Linux software is not free,
but annual software license and maintenance fee are typically
up to 60 per cent less.
On the issue of services, he said Leapsoft provides professional
support for Wazobia Linux and the company is ready to support
institutions of learning to incorporate open source language
in their curriculum.
|
