FOSS Solutions

[Billy Crook]

Eric Raymond's book has a few good essays on this.  If you're
interested in reading them, he's posted them on his website for free.
It's a good hour or so of reading, but it's worth it.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/homesteading/
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/


On 10/7/07, leenix <leenix at kc.rr.com> wrote:
> Obviously, this could start (and has started) plenty of religious flame
> wars over the years. This is not my intention. I am wondering what
> points I can use, specifically, as arguments to make a case for FOSS,
> specifically Linux, in a business setting. If I were hired as the IT
> director of a small company, and was asked to build an IT Director of a
> small company, my inclination would be to begin building with Linux and
> FOSS, but when my boss came to me and asked me why I chose those
> technologies, honestly I would have very few concrete reasons.  Here is
> what I have so far:
>
>
>      1. I agree with the philosophy behind FOSS
>      2. There are a plethora of plug-ins developed to help extend our
>         infrastructure for our current (and future) needs
>      3. If we find that a piece of software we downloaded (or purchased)
>         is broken, or doesn't do what we need it to do, we have the
>         source code and (hopefully) the resources to fix/change it.
>      4. Not only are there several (competing) options for paid support,
>         there are a ton of free message boards, mailing lists and IRC
>         channels to get assistance from, making our virtual knowledge
>         bank HUGE
>      5. Total cost of ownership is going to be a fraction of that of
>         closed source products.
>      6. When needed, we can find closed source software to do what we
>         need when we can't find a FOSS solution
>
>
> That's where I am at. I am a programmer and know only the basics of
> networking, so the networking possibilities within FOSS elude me. Of
> course, it's always most important  to use the most appropriate tool for
> the job, but I would give preference to FOSS tools over proprietary
> tools. Again, my intention is not to start arguments, only to pull
> together reasons why FOSS is a credible business alternative to
> proprietary software solutions.
>
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