The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications patronised exhibitions and workshops that held at the esplanade of the Yaounde Multipurpose Sports Complex on Saturday.
Institutions and businesses in the public and private sectors as well as the civil society have been urged to adopt free software for the management of data, projects, human resources, training, academic programmes, website creation and audiovisual entertainment.
The call was made on Saturday October 22 at the Yaounde Multipurpose Sports Complex by the Director of Infrastructure and Access Networks to Information and Communication Technologies in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Nana Youmba. He was presiding at the seventh edition of the Software Freedom Day, SFD, celebrated on the theme “All together around free software for the sharing of knowledge.”
The day is in recognition of the fact that most software used in computers all over the world are protected by copyright and are very expensive, limiting their use and dissemination by a greater percentage of people. Recourse to free software for all types of applications thus began in 1984 and have since gained worldwide popularity as they are designed to facilitate free access by all users. “Unlike copyright software, users have access to the code source of free software that permits them to adapt to their specific needs without the permission of the software designer,” said the Event Manager of Ubuntu.cm, Christian Matoukou, during the first lecture that highlighted the event.
One advantage that was mentioned with emphasis was the fact that free software do not have viruses. Some examples of the free software internet navigators mentioned include Linux, Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Free software also exist for operating systems, graphics, database management, electronic messaging and word processing.
The event was organised by the civil society organisation, PROTEGE-QV, whose President, Sylvie Siyam, reiterated that the day actually celebrates the user’s right to choose not to buy copyright software and instead use free software.
