[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu and Mozilla, the inevitable alliance

[Helge Reikeras]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:38:21 +0200, Andre Rossouw <andre at arnet.co.za>  
wrote:

>
> On Mon, 2010-01-18 at 14:43 +0200, Charl Wentzel wrote:
>> 2. You customers are more relaxed, since they know that should
>> something
>> happen to you, they can always get someone else to support the
>> software.
>
> My only experience of this is the opposite. I work for a large IT
> company and they use the opposite of this as their sales tactic for .net
> applications.
>
> Their thinking as that since the local universities are pushing out
> developers proficient with Microsoft tools, that the open source (or any
> non-Microsoft) alternatives should be abandoned. This is unfortunately
> very prevalent in the Eastern Cape.

Universities need to produce graduates with the skills society requires.  
Employers want to stick to the platform that graduates are familiar with  
(lower training costs). ISVs want to develop software for the platform  
where they can sell most. End-users want to be on the platform where they  
can find the most and the best software. Businesses and government are  
resistant to make the switch due to high switching-costs. This is the  
nature of M$ tight grip the OS world. What we need to ask ourselves is,  
what can we do to break it?

> I strongly disagree and openly endorse Open Source applications for
> business, however, the business leaders that I interact with need some
> coaching.
>
>> It's not so much "risky" as it is "different", and "different" usually
>> feels scary, even if it is not.
>
> I agree with this 100%, I've moved a few users (including power users)
> to Ubuntu as well as some "critical" business servers. Now that the
> people are seeing something different, they approach the Open Source
> differently.
>
> My two cents worth.
>
> Andre


-- 
Helge Reikeras
http://www.google.com/profiles/helge.reikeras

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