Title:
Open Source Software
Use in South African Organisations: An Empirical Research Report
Abstract: The
research within this paper is comprised of an analysis of respondents who
are in involved in IT in South Africa. The main findings show that Linux is
most widely used amongst Open Source Server and Desktop Operating Systems
in South Africa and globally. The results show that the factors that influence
a decision regarding OSS adoption are not considered significantly more or
less important across the different software application areas. The results
also showed that the most critical factors that influence decisions in favour
of OSS are performance, stability, and access control. It is concluded
that OSS is not being used because of its differentiating factor, modifiable
source, but rather based on its strengths of stability, performance and better
access control, suggesting that proprietary vendors could compete on the same
grounds. Furthermore, OSS in South Africa is generally in line with global
trends and it seems probable that OSS growth will continue
Authors: F. Mosoval , L. Gough, B. Hart, T. Kadungure,
and K. Johnston