defending FOSS was Re: [Linux-aus] [Fwd: Re: [xxxxxxx] FW: Re: S.A. Parliament - Ubuntu Matter of Interest]

Brenda Aynsley <bpa@iss.net.au> · Mon Dec 4 16:48:02 2006

folks you're missing the point of my email, i must do better in future 
to be clear in what I am asking for/communicating.
I said "Would anyone on these lists care to argue the case in the 
interest of educating professional ICT practitioners who are not across 
the issue? "
I was asking for the learned people on this list to comment on the 
misguided assertions of my colleagues.  the fact that it arose out of 
one politicians speech making in the house, is irrelevant.  (I dont 
disagree with the ideas espoused about getting out there and talking 
with pollies but that's not the meat of this matter).
So how about it?  Do you want to join maddog and james in taking up the 
challenge of provided evidence to the contrary.
If I can extract the essence of the points made by my ill-informed 
colleagues:
* Open source software is not really free ... The cost of free open 
source software is migration, maintenance and reliability issues.
[I know this has been addressed by con zymaris amongst others already]
* ... it is currently used mostly for running non-critical or highly 
expensive infrastructure ... delivering non critical web content, 
internet services and other non critical internet-related services
[maddog in part responded to this but other examples particularly in 
australia would be great]
* Where more reliable services are required, it is more of Unix flavours 
which are more often used than Linux
[what is meant by this do you think?]
* Costs  [of implementing FOSS} include change of hardware, retraining 
staff, additional expert maintenance staff, buying online support 24/7, 
design and implementation of addtional redundancy to have 100% backup in 
case of breakdown
[are there total cost of ownership current docs around on this?]
* ... What happens when someone sneezes and the system locks up, or new 
development is required to address a bug or new feature? The FOSS 
zealots don't mention the hidden cost of open source adoption.

any contributionsyou can make would be appreciated so that I can come 
back to my colleagues and start the process of education.
cheers
brenda
--
Brenda Aynsley, FACS
Director Oz Business Partners http://www.ozbusinesspartners.com/
Mobile:+61(0) 412 662 988 || Skype: callto://baynsley
Phone:08 8357 8844  Fax:08 8272 7486 Nodephone:08 7127 0107
Chairman ACS SA http://www.acs.org.au/
The ACS Computer Professional Educational Program impacts
on the Practising Computer Professional scheme. To see how visit
http://www.acs.org.au/cpprogram/cpp.htm
smime.p7s