Nigerian Linux Flavour Is Out!

A Nigerian flavour of linux in now out. Developed by leapsoft with a first and second level suppot for it. It's called Wazobia Linux. Read more.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/suntech/2006/feb/01/suntech-01-02-2006-001.htm

See this too

http://wazobialinux.com/

I am still looking at it, learnt it's a commercial version and not free. Wants to include is in the UN's $100 Laptop projects.

Still looking.any opinion ?

am looking at it right now and it looks promising for now all i have to say is its about time some one came out with our own version........... am not a linux user but am really looking foward to giving wazobia linux a try and to think it comes in hausa yoruba and igbo

This is great. I've been wondering when someone will take the intiative to do something like this. Asian countries(South Korea and Japan inclusive) have OSs, even windows in their native languages. It helps in technological developement.  One suggestion though; i think they should try and upload the image/iso file. The bandwidth excuse will not prevent people from downloading and using their product. They should take a leave from the UBUNTU Project. I will try to pass the word around here too.

This is great!

damn! i've always wanted to do that. i even had my own custom-made LFS-distro. kudos to leapsoft anyway.

Nice work.

More info here http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wazobia

I've always questioned the need for all these linux distributions popping up all over the place though. Some of them are just a waste of energy. I say this because I won't spend time on something, unless I have something new to offer, or there is a demand for it.

So, the question becomes, what is wazobia offering, or what demand is it trying to fill?

The Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo deal is cool. At the end of the day, would somebody working on wazobia be employable globally, since it's most likely to be in a native Nigerian language?

Oasis

I think i understand your concern. There is this saying from my part of Nigeria: "Our own is our own". I work with *nix on professional level and i've tried most of the flavors out there; both live Cds and installation distribution. Though they have the same kernel, each differs in interface, modules, specific application etc...

Believe it or not, people unconsciously or otherwise process information in their native language. I guess the inclusion of the major Nigerian language is another way to entice people to do their computer works in their mother tongue. It may not be a big issue for those currently living Nigeria, but it is for me.

I can't wait to spook my co-workers on Monday when i boot my systems with ndeewo on the welcome screen.

The inclusion of Nigerian languages was started by the guys at gnome (hence the usage), you can read about read about it here .


Just like the Yoruba Google page, the fad is not really going to catch up. 100% of people that have access to a PC can read and write basic English that can help them to navigate their way through, so i see no reason for all these languages.

And i will be stupid to dump some well known distro that i have been using for a relatively new one.

All these forks are damn simple to do only that you must have some good tux know how. Making a Linux distro is like putting a puzzle together, the solutions are ready made.


Naija need better stuff than re-inventing the wheel.

Why pay for a distro when I can get Fedora Core with very good community support for free every 6 months

oasis:

Nice work.

The Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo deal is cool. I don't know about Hausa though, since these people don't exactly value western education.

What's your beef with the Hausas? This comment is racist to me. Due you have documented facts to back up your claim or it's just your perception of the Hausa people

What's your beef with the Hausas? This comment is racist to me. Due you have documented facts to back up your claim or it's just your perception of the Hausa people

Actually, the question is, can you prove otherwise?

Just like the Yoruba Google page, the fad is not really going to catch up. 100% of people that have access to a PC can read and write basic English that can help them to navigate their way through, so i see no reason for all these languages.

I think the effort is laudable, since it puts Nigeria's name next to something other than 419. But as far as people actually adopting wazobia linux, I just don't see it happening.

oasis:

I think the effort is laudable, since it puts Nigeria's name next to something other than 419. But as far as people actually adopting wazobia linux, I just don't see it happening.

with the help of the government, it can. and i hope it does.

Does anyone has an idea of the cost of this 'Nigerian OS'?

It is very shameful that someone will use a turn a free OS into a paid OS and also a paid support. All you people that are proud its a disgrace.

You know i think it can go only so far because of the followership that i takes to
support a linux distro -and it's commercial again! hey i don't even use redhat
and i know that it works well how are you going to persauade me to use
wazobia?

I now work for Leapsoft!! Serious, I went through the posts and I must say wazobia linux is past that stage. You can walk in to Omatek, ask them that you need a system with linux installed and gbam! what you get is a system with wazobia installed on it.

ha i see u went and dug up this thread. well lemme disappoint u.

a laptop coming with a distro aint news, at comp villa av seen an acer, a hp and a dell, with ubuntu on them from factory.

then secondly, look lemme be frank with u, what is the base of this distro? debian?

look it is a shame that u guys have to go on and start a commercial linux distro!!!!!! the way i see it, u make bill gates look like a saint. ur core is free, the kernel is free, hell YOU DO NOT even develop any apps on ur own, and u turn around to sell it at least bill pays his developers!!!

yes there are commercial distros around BUT THEY HAVE A BASIS FOR BEING COMMERCIAL AND THEY STILL FULFILL OBLIGATIONS TO THE GPL/GNU LICENSES THEY USE.

e.g. redhat is not focused at the home desktop environment anymore, they target the coys and large scale commercial concerns and their basis for commerciality is that they provide top class support to companies who want to tap into the advantages of linux but do not possess the technical know how for large scale deployment.

they still support MANDRIVA and other RPM based distros for home users for free. redhat is a commercial arm.

do u pple even have repositories? filled with other pple's packages or u just use symbolic links to the debian repositories?

look in case u just woke up, in spite of the great leaps and bounds ubuntu has made, its difficult getting pple to trust it for everyday usage. now u want to SELL linux to pple who will not even use a better alternative which is free!!! or u wanna say ur distro is better than ubuntu and more suported?

when u pple wake up, come back and u will get help to move it. besides there are ways of making money off it other than selling what is free. there are ways or else every other distro will be dead.

WAKE UP

OH ok its rpm based! hmmn.

and i saw this on ur site wat does this mean?? :- "

"The Wazobia Linux™ Live CD is pre-configured with a single user, User: root and Password:123456 Please note that a system using Wazobia Linux Live CD should not be used as a solution for Desktop or Server computing as it may be accessed by unknown parties. If you desire the more complete and secure version please contact Leapsoft Limited"

if i dont use it for desktop or server computing, the WHAT IS IT USED FOR?

and sorry there is only 1 account and ITS ROOT!!!!!!!!?

are u joking? and this is for everyone's usage?

that ONLY happens on modular solutions like puppy linux where u dont even stand to lose much but ur save file.


case closed. moderator delete this thread

4llerbuntu:

ha i see u went and dug up this thread. well lemme disappoint u.

a laptop coming with a distro aint news, at comp villa av seen an acer, a hp and a dell, with ubuntu on them from factory.

why should I be disappointed? for the fact that someone sells something no mean say i no fit sell d same thing na. haba bros!

4llerbuntu:

then secondly, look lemme be frank with u, what is the base of this distro? debian?

redhat

4llerbuntu:

look it is a shame that u guys have to go on and start a commercial linux distro!!!!!! the way i see it, u make bill gates look like a saint.    your core is free, the kernel is free, hell YOU DO NOT even develop any apps on your  own, and u turn around to sell it at least bill pays his developers!!!

MAC OSX = Unix = open source, but is OSX free? bill must have just got promoted to an angel!
And just for the sake of args, yea we got CUSTOM APPS built in-house

4llerbuntu:

yes there are commercial distros around BUT THEY HAVE A BASIS FOR BEING COMMERCIAL AND THEY STILL FULFILL OBLIGATIONS TO THE GPL/GNU LICENSES THEY USE.

e.g. redhat is not focused at the home desktop environment anymore, they target the coys and large scale commercial concerns and their basis for commerciality is that they provide top class support to companies who want to tap into the advantages of linux but do not possess the technical know how for large scale deployment.

they still support MANDRIVA and other RPM based distros  for home users for free. redhat is a commercial arm.

do u pple even have repositories? filled with other pple's packages or u just use symbolic links to the debian repositories?

whats wrong with doing a sym link? ) If it will make our job easier, then yea we will do a sym link, otherwise we build our thing.

4llerbuntu:

look in case u just woke up, in spite of the great leaps and bounds ubuntu has made, its difficult getting pple to trust it for everyday usage. now u want to SELL linux to pple who will not even use a better alternative which is free!!! or u wanna say your distro is better than ubuntu and more suported?

No arguement there, for the fact dat ubuntu failed does not mean wazobia will also fail. At least we know how ubuntu was trying to do it and we are not going to try to do it their way.

4llerbuntu:

when u pple wake up, come back and u will get help to move it. besides there are ways of making money off it other than selling what is free. there are ways or else every other distro will be dead.

WAKE UP

PLease if you have ideas, share it. We will gladly say thank you and maybe write an autographed copy of wazobia for you.

look it is a shame that u guys have to go on and start a commercial linux distro!!!!!! the way i see it, u make bill gates look like a saint.    your core is free, the kernel is free, hell YOU DO NOT even develop any apps on your  own, and u turn around to sell it at least bill pays his developers!!!

I quite agree with you. Nigerians are bent on making profit for some little effort they make.

MAC OSX = Unix = open source, but is OSX free? bill must have just got promoted to an angel!
And just for the sake of args, yea we got CUSTOM APPS built in-house

The best way for Wazobia Linux to be successful as an Open Source Program is to look for sponsors not look to unix−like Mac OSX(Mac OS is many applications based than Windows).

wonder how much traction wazobia linux has had since the above discussion in 2009.

First-class share it is without doubt. I have been looking for this information.

Another thing, the availability of nigerian languages in a linux distro is not a new thing; i think u remember seeing yoruba language pack in the first version of ubuntu i ever used which was in 2005; perhaps these people are doing a good thing but i can't help observing that a lot of the people bashing this distro are people who i know to be regular linux users. If you have difficulty getting people who are used to linux to adopt your distro, how do you want to get those who aren't

Nice one from Nigeria!