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Your analysis is all too true, Austin.  But it also points out a
business opportunity for a group who is willing to support open source
installations.  They might need to do some marketing to get in the door,
but they have a huge support base to draw on, which most proprietary
vendors do not have.


On Thu, 2003-04-17 at 09:43, Austin Godber wrote:
> Here is a snip from a slashdot thread today (the one about MS Office).=20
> I am wondering if this is a good summary of business attitudes, and if=20
> so, how should opensource deal with it?
>=20
> ----
>   The reason that they [businesses] won't touch OSS is because they=20
> perceive risk to their careers in going with it. It's not that OSS is=20
> more or less buggy, it's a matter of them having to take the blame if it=20
> goes badly. If you buy from a proprietary software vendor, then you've=20
> got somebody that you are paying, that you can yell at if things go=20
> wrong. The decision to use their software won't ever be questioned, and=20
> either they'll be made to fix it, or another vendor will be chosen. The=20
> decision to pick that vendor will likely never be questioned as long as=20
> the manager can show some due diligence in making the decision.
>=20
> On the other hand, if they choose an open source product, if there is a=20
> bug, there's nobody to pass the buck too. So the manager is taking on=20
> the burden of responsibility if that software does have bugs in it.=20
> He'll be perceived as exposing the company to unnecessary risk just to=20
> save a few bucks.
>=20
> This is part of an overall attitude problem in corporate america.=20
> Managers, generally, suffer more for a mistake than they gain for a=20
> success. Success is expected, that's doing your job. Failure is=20
> incompetence. Of course failure caused by an effort to get the company=20
> ahead of the game is still failure, so why take the risk. Hire=20
> contractors, and pay for software vendors because if there is a mistake=20
> you just dump the blame onto them, cut ties, and your job is secure.
> ----
>=20
> Austin
>=20
>=20
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>=20
>=20
--=20
 Jim

 Freedom is all we really want

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