[PLUG] Question about companies and open source applications

[Mayuresh]

On Sun, May 08, 2011 at 11:52:49AM +0530, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay wrote:
> On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Mayuresh <mayuresh at acm.org> wrote:
> 
> > Many schools and institutes do not even know how much they stand to save
> > by adopting FOSS. With fee hikes becoming a regular issue, an eye opener
> > is needed for school runners.
> 
> When it comes to institutions I'd hesitate to put forth 'cost savings'
> as the only value derived by moving to a FOSS stack. In real life, it

Certainly. Cost is one of the many factors. But it is often easier to get
across with the kind of people you usually have to deal with in such
matters. All other aspects should be brought out as well. I'd pick
security, pace it which the FOSS software grows, community support (and
vendor support, too, if one prefers), overall efficiency and longevity of
IT setups based on FOSS as other factors.

I'd just refrain from or put in last place, the philosophical part, even
though that could be first somewhere in my mind. For someone running a
business above arguments will make more sense than the philosophical ones.


Overall, for the thread topic, I'd suggest an article cold be written
about how FOSS was effectively used in a school, as a case study, bringing
out all its benefits etc.

Newspapers is one forum I can think of to publish such an article. There
could be others where various stakeholders in schools - parents, institute
runners would get to know about it. (Personally, I don't know a particular
forum though one can talk around, for example, with acquaintances
associated with schools etc. to look for suitable forum.)


Any unethical practices if at all any vendor is adopting can be countered
by educating your co-buyers rather than spending energy on fighting with
such vendors - particularly if you do not have the resources to take on
such fights.

Mayuresh.