Beukes-Amiss, Catherine M.Mufeti, Kauna2014-02-282014-02-282005Beukes-Amiss, M., Mufeti, K. 2005. Towards Education for All; The Critical Role of Open and Distance Learning in National Development;30th August - 1 Sep 2005; Windhoek; Namibia:Namibian Open Learning Network Trust .http://hdl.handle.net/11070/725In acquiring new software/ an organization can either, {1) buy ready-made software/ {2) download open source software/ or (3) develop their own software from scratch. With a lot of debates about Open Source Software (OSS) or Proprietary Software/ it becomes imperative to look at the benefits and challenges of using OSS instead of Proprietary Software. The real benefit of OSS is in terms of freedom of access to the source code to be able to customize it to suit your need􀃚 and in some cases it is also free in terms of purchase charge􀃚 and software licensing (O.S.S. Africa/ 2005). This paper highlights direct benefits and challenges of using open source software. The benefi􀃛s among other, are reliabili� stabili􀃞 cos􀃜 flexibility and freedom (gbdirect 2005) and some of the challenges are limited support from developer􀃚 and the level of programming knowledge require􀃝 which is often lacking in organizations. It concludes focusing on the experiences of using an open source Learning Management System (LMS) for e-Learning activities/ at the University of Namibia.enBenefitsSource SoftwareUNAM'sLearningManagementCritical roleDistanceDevelopmentArticle