On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 10:51, Nagarjuna G. wrote:
We ask such a company to use free software not to save money alone, but to be FREE. To get the freedom to repair the software they use, to get the freedom to use it for any purpose etc. What I would say is to spend money if necessary (say employ good free software experts in your company) and gain this virtuous freedom. What we should tell the company is that free software is economical is accidental, and not necessary.
That's the hardest part to convince SSU managers. They have a one-track mind and only believe in economic freedom, not in FS ideologies. What they need is a cheap software meeting their needs and that is how we can start selling FS to them. They cannot or rather will not invest in hiring a software developer just for maintaining the software for them. The ideologies can come later on when the guys feel comfortable with FS which they will eventually.
Second thing, using pirated copies of Windows-based software is too tempting for them. They generally already have the setup done from a neighbourhood guy who has prior experience in 'installing' Windows, free of cost. The guy got his experience and they got their setup running.
That is the reason why we cannt ask companies to switch to free software for the economic reasons alone, such as TCO. The TCO concept belongs to another paradigm and not to FS paradigm.
SSIs are too calculating about TCO. And when we talk about the FS ideology, it falls flat when they jump back at you asking about the whole deal they are getting. So TCO has to be explained to them, although it still works to be way cheaper than most proprietary software.
Today the govts falling prey to the cost argument. Govt should say we opt for free software because this will give the country self-reliance, and not because is is economical (it is worth repeating this golden message, so tolerate my reeats.)
And I too agree with that. But each sector needs different strategies for selling the FS concept. Govt needs to be explained about security, SSIs need to be told about economic sense, Large corporations need to be told about open standards... The list goes on.