[LINK] Show me the money

[Adrian Chadd]

You can still get absolutely horrible (was going to say the "s" word,
but this is a public mailing list with respectable folk on it) software
to run under Free alternatives.

I've seen crap software running on top of free software. I've seen great
software (not that much though!) running on top of Windows.

There's more to that picture than meets the eye. I'd not be looking at
the "savings", I'd look at ways to be more constructive and efficient
with that money. $70 mil into a linux company may still net you the
same services, for example, but the flip side is that you also get everything
open and auditible (something you don't get for that $70mil from MS.)

2c,


Adrian

On Wed, Oct 29, 2008, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> Malcolm Miles wrote:
> > On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:16:08 -0700, you wrote:
> > 
> >> I got bored. Here's a summary of expenditure on Microsoft software for 
> >> the six month reporting period (as best as I can tell based on the 
> >> information to hand):
> >>
> >> http://www.stillhq.com/diary/001102.html
> >>
> >> So, about $70 million annually.
> > 
> > Note that the expenditure is not all for software. Some of the money
> > was sent on consultancy services and support.
> > 
> 
> Mikal,
> 
> If you are still bored, I wondered about your figure too - ie what was included
> -was it just MS product (servers, desktop, training software maybe???) license fees?
> 
> $70 million sounds low to include license management, technical support services
> or related products eg virus protection.
> 
> And how does this compare to SAP, Oracle, Adobe and proprietary Unix or other
> operating
> systems software licenses.
> 
> There is also the issue of fees to customise/configure closed source software -
> where the customer has no asset. I have always thought this is problematic for
> customisation that may be applicable to multiple government agencies.
> 
> I wonder what the savings to the Australian Tax payer if all governments
> switched to Apache. Though this wouldn't necessarily be savings, it would be
> money available to do more things. I would call that an efficiency dividend!
> 
> Marghanita
> -- 
> Marghanita da Cruz
> http://www.ramin.com.au
> Phone: (+61)0414 869202
> 
> 
> 
> 
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