On Thu, 2006-02-09 at 20:24 +0800, John Alvin Galt wrote: > > On a different note, I totally disagree with the "push this O/S to > other people" idea. You may “offer” an alternative, but not force > other people to convert to open source. Offer / discuss the benefits > and disadvantages of using open source….then let other people decide > if they want to use it. If they do not go open-source then sad to say, > score another point to the Microsoft Team.
This depends on what's at stake, and has to be done in a case to case basis. Different sectors have different needs and different interests. For example, what may seem to be applicable in business may not be applicable for individuals or governments. Businesses exist for the interest of profit, governments exist for the interest of their citizens, while individuals have their own interests. You can't sanely say that you should apply the same campaign to all three. It just so happens that for some cases, FOSS is good for businesses. In our case in the third world, FOSS is definitely good for the public sector. For individuals they can make their own judgment. In the end, it's those who have the power to decide who'd make the choice. We're simply showing them alternatives. > It is just unfortunate for me that my boss (who’s a cheapskate) > doesn’t want to spend on MS licenses that’s why I am obligated to > learn Linux. Well that's always part of being employed - the control ain't solely yours. Any business is obligated and beholden to the interests of their shareholders. If they could drive down support costs, license costs, and yet offer similar degrees of productivity guaranteeing a better ROI, lower TCO, and a bigger bottomline in the long term, having the personnel trained in FOSS isn't a bad idea. Short term costs can be forgiven when you can save more in the long term - and that's smart business handling. Then again you aren't really that unfortunate. -- Paolo Alexis Falcone [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
