Open Source Course for Managers?

faqmaster asks: "I teach systems analysis and design as part of programming and project management tracks at a community college, and I'm interested in putting together a course for project-managers on open-source software. What suggestions would the Slashdot community have as far as what managers need to know/understand about Open Source? What books would you suggest? Anyone have any especially good case studies of successful OSS implementations in the business world? Any insight as to how project managers and the like can successfully incorporate open-source into thier projects? What advantages might they see? What are the pitfalls?"

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OSS Saved Amazon and Intel(!) $$

[Zergwyn]

I was very surprised a while back to read these articles on a big companies actually saving a lot of money, and one of them is none other then Intel! The article details about how Intel was inspired by Napster and switched some stuff to linux. From the article:

"Free operating system Linux was another unexpected result from ad hoc Internet collaboration embraced by Intel, saving the chipmaker $200 million," Busch said. The company ditched expensive Unix servers with proprietary Unix software and replaced them with cheaper servers equipped with Intel's own chips that run Linux software.

Amazon also made the switch In some ways, this is even better.

Online retailer Amazon.com shaved millions of dollars from its technology costs last quarter by switching to the Linux operating system, a disclosure that could provide some guidance for other companies seeking to cut expenses in a stagnant economy.

Provide guidance for other companies? And the title, "Linux saved us millions." Sounds great to me. At least some corporations finally seem to be learning that OSS does have advantages, and they can in many cases be spelled out in nice, crisp greenbacks.