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.