On 22/03/11 09:25, Edward Beckmann wrote:
> Hi
>
> I often meet people with small businesses and most struggle with the
> concept of open source software. My simple aim is to make them aware
> that there are alternatives to MS and Mac for them to consider.
>
> Without wanting to debate the subtleties (open source / licences /
> distros) that have been covered in the past, does anyone know of a well
> written piece which I can refer people to?
>
Have a look at the list of presentations
http://www.opensource.org/osi-open-source-education#presentations_developed_by_osi
The first may be enough to create an A4 sheet. Probably the best
strategy is to say that you pay for the support, not the software.
Support could also mean training of current staff. Avoid talking about
free or no cost initially and concentrate on who is using OSS and why.
So I know Specsavers moved completely away from M$ in 2006 so all their
network and new shops ran Linux and used Scalix for email. This saved
them a fortune. They have just switched from Scalix to Google(+) as they
believe that is the best option to expand globally (still mainly OSS).
Major banks are switching from Solaris to Linux as they know is it very
stable and again saves licensing costs. The London Stock exchange moved
to Linux to get the best performance(*). You are not locked in to a
vendor, have flexibility and choice plus access to the latest software
and current technology.
John.
(+)
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2011/01/25/245073/Case-study-Specsavers-switches-email-from-open-source-to.htm
(*) Still in progress, but LSE has been running Linux on some
applications for years now.
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