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Public Software for the Public Sector
Why FOSS is not yet popular?
However there are also several obstacles in the adoption and promotion of FOSS, including by the public sector. These include issues relating to support and maintenance, user training as well as 'user friendliness' of the applications. However a much larger obstacle is the general lack of awareness about the concept of FOSS and existence of FOSS applications. Just as Xerox is equated to photocopying, software for most users only means Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office. People of course now buy 'Xerox' machines that may be manufactured by Canon or other companies, in the case of desktop software, people only are aware of Windows and MS Office. Hardware (Personal Computers and Laptops) vendors also usually bundle Windows with their systems and do not offer a choice to the customer. This is unethical and perhaps even illegal.
Customers hence are not told about possibilities of opting for FOSS operating system and office applications which can reduce the cost of purchase. Also not all features of one application are available in another and if a person is used to one application, there is a huge inertia to move to another application. Also any application matures over several releases and initial releases can be bit difficult to use. Also there is a impression amongst many users of proprietary software that FOSS applications are not user friendly, support and training is not available, drivers are not available and some applications run only on proprietary software platforms. These impressions are not entirely true, though many of them pertain to the larger issue of the creation and sustanence of a 'eco-system' for FOSS. It is also ironic that many of the users who believe proprietary software to be superior have never used FOSS. It would be fair for a user to use a comparable FOSS application as well for sometime before concluding about its user friendliness. Hence though there are compelling reasons to chose FOSS, proprietary software such as Windows or MS Office still has a near monopoly on the market. The annual outflow of funds on account of purchase of proprietary software licenses is huge, something a developing country can not really afford.
Customers hence are not told about possibilities of opting for FOSS operating system and office applications which can reduce the cost of purchase. Also not all features of one application are available in another and if a person is used to one application, there is a huge inertia to move to another application. Also any application matures over several releases and initial releases can be bit difficult to use. Also there is a impression amongst many users of proprietary software that FOSS applications are not user friendly, support and training is not available, drivers are not available and some applications run only on proprietary software platforms. These impressions are not entirely true, though many of them pertain to the larger issue of the creation and sustanence of a 'eco-system' for FOSS. It is also ironic that many of the users who believe proprietary software to be superior have never used FOSS. It would be fair for a user to use a comparable FOSS application as well for sometime before concluding about its user friendliness. Hence though there are compelling reasons to chose FOSS, proprietary software such as Windows or MS Office still has a near monopoly on the market. The annual outflow of funds on account of purchase of proprietary software licenses is huge, something a developing country can not really afford.