Comments on: Dealing with Recession – Saving Money With Free and Open Source Software

By: Survey Software

Survey Software — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:54:01 +0000

great but free software doesnt come with premium things – so free is something which people treat as a secondry option not as a primary – that’s why there is still a huge demand of premium softwares in the market and people will continue to buy those . .

By: jacynta

jacynta — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:53:39 +0000

This is really great…!

By: vonskippy

vonskippy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:24:37 +0000

Fixating on cost is a stupid marketing strategy. To a business, buy-in cost is a drop in the bucket compared to TCO. Add in ROI (i.e. what can that software DO for me) and it’s a losing battle for Linux on the desktop. Business is all about making money – when a Linux Desktop or Linux Application can help me MAKE money, trust me, I’ll be there – until then, I’ll stick with something that does.

By: Survey Software

Survey Software — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:35:12 +0000

Free will always generate big buzz with among consumers, so there are advantages to making certain things be offered for free.
-Jack

By: hardi

hardi — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:39:04 +0000

@mt

good point…

By: mt

mt — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:58:40 +0000

@Joren

In my experience, the cost of a license for say Windows is nothing compared to the total cost of ownership of the software. When you add in support, training, legal (to review the license), … the $100 (or so) is a drop in the bucket. Switching to Linux and replacing Windows in a large company could much more than is saved.

Also, free software is far from free. You need more training since there isn’t a company to fall back on for help, or you need to purchase a support contract.

Small companies/startups though, where cash is scarce and time is plentiful, are a different story though.

By: Joren

Joren — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:10:36 +0000

As an ubuntu user I totally support this development. The Dutch government has switched from MS Office standards (.doc .xls) to Open standards (.odf etc). This could be considered such a first (tiny) step.

But I keep wondering what the actual financial benefit is of switching to Linux/Unix etc. Is it really that much that companies have to pay for an XP licence? Is there a (more or less) standard price, or does every company negotiate on this. I never saw any figures and I am really wondering if the benefit is in percentages, promilles or maybe less…

Does anybody have any clue?

By: Thomas Pedersen

Thomas Pedersen — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:22:36 +0000

I would just like to recommend Open Source Alternative http://www.osalt.com/. This site helps people find free, open source alternatives for the commercial software products they would normally have had to pay for.

This site is a real gem.

Thomas

By: ugm6hr

ugm6hr — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:16:24 +0000

Even the UK Government have reacted to the recession with a positive spin on open source software: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7910110.stm