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Ernie Ball - Model For Open-Source Transition?
fr0z writes "
Ernie Ball is a company that makes guitar strings. After being raided by the BSA in 2000 without warning and fined $100,000 for a few unlicensed copies of software, CEO Sterling Ball vowed not to give another cent to Microsoft and within 6 months, according to CNET News, had the whole company switched to Red Hat Linux, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, and other free software."
2. Switch to Linux et al.
3. Profit.
Other companies have likely done similar but it's the publicity that counts more than anything - an actual success story with Linux from a company with clout should turn a few heards in the direction of open source.
If is true that if you have to pay the legal expenses of the BSA while they prosecute you, then it is time for a flood of feeble "In Soviet America" jokes. Perhaps someone who is a lawyer could explain the situation?
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Mr. Ball sounds like a practical businessman, he sounds passionate and as if he enjoys what he does. I wonder if he would be receptive to a business proposition in which he would be featured in commercial advertisements and perhaps provide more precise figures about what it costs him (as he said that analysts are too pessimistic).
As more people like Mr. Ball speak out, the open source community is gaining more people who understand business and can convince other businesses. This man understands that free software can still cost money, and he has the personal experience and business acumen to be able to boil things down to the most important, concise points. He mentiones several important points in his interview, and probably has tons more knowledge that would be useful to making open source a better business solution, and making open source profitable.
It might not be such a bad idea for companies and individuals who are considering funding open source projects to listen to such people when considering project goals. And it would not be so difficult for free software organizations to initiate commerical projects including creating advertisements and articles based on solid, no-nonsense business cases for open source featuring real-world successes like Ernie Ball.
But I've got to tell you, I couldn't have built my business without Microsoft, so I thank them. Now that I'm not so bitter, I'm glad I'm in the position I'm in. They made that possible, and I thank them.
I'll take that to mean that when he needed the software that Open Source wasn't around yet. But I wonder if we'll see that quote used by Microsoft anyway.
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
RTFA. He says the change started as emotional and reactionary, but now he is reaping financial and managerial rewards of his hot-headed decision.
The best part of the article, though, is here:
The other thing is that if you look at productivity. If you put a bunch of stuff on people's desktops they don't need to do their job, chances are they're going to use it. I don't have that problem. If all you need is word processing, that's all you're going to have on your desktop, a word processor. It's not going to have Paint or PowerPoint. I tell you what, our hits to eBay went down greatly when not everybody had a Web browser. For somebody whose job is filling out forms all day, invoicing and exporting, why do they need a Web browser? The idea that if you have 2,000 terminals they all have to have a Web browser, that's crazy. It just creates distractions.
Remember this next time someone does a TCO study. Betcha they don't count the actual productivity of the users as part of TCO.
Send lawyers, guns, and money. Dad, get me out of this.
I found his answer to the question (paraphrased) "did you find everything you needed from open source?" was a good point; that most OSS is developer-centric. Check out SourceForge for the number of PHP content management systems, for example. Yikes, what's an OSS advocate to do...
On the other hand, where I work (UK public sector) is desperately short of money, composed of lots of small organisations who can hire one or two developers each at most, and yet very tight-knit - there are partnerships going on all the time. One of the things we're after is records management - document management on stereoids, if you like. Unfortunately, there's no OSS equivalent for me to recommend to others in the partnership.
Are content management systems all that exciting to code? I dunno (and I've written one)..but I think the OSS world needs to branch out into other markets beyond the "let's fork another HTTP server and put Linux on an iPod" type of project - surely the only way to reduce Microsoft's ubiquity is to be a ubiquitous alternative yourself? How about some OSS records management, workflow, online forms, asset management, planning applications, licensing apps?
PS: If anyone knows of such OSS projects, advice gratefully accepted... :-)
"This is why men never share their feelings; because women always remember." -Just Shoot Me.
when did the BSA (Boyscouts of America) start doing raids?!?
A friend of mine got "raided" once. In Holland, they
do this by saying that they will charge them with a crime. If the victim doesn't happen to know that the BSA is a commercial organisation and therefore doesn't have that power, the victim will let them in and they will gather evidence which will then be used in a civilian lawsuit. If you don't let them in, nothing happens, because they know that the public prosecutor is not going to bother with these cases and they don't have any other way to force you to reveal the incriminating information.
Wouldn't going to the cafeteria or out on the balcony for a 10 minute talk, laugh, cup of coffee or a smoke help someone relax better than playing Minesweeper or browsing the Web? It would helps the body and the mind better than keeping on crouching in front of the computer. I've seen a company once where they had a lounge room complete with toy basketball sponge ball and hoop. As long as people remind to not abuse the privilege it works better than anything they could've done on their PC to "relax".
What about the rest of the Office "family"? Both Access. and Project have changed file formats. Sure you can downgrade when you save your files as previous versions, but you lose many of the features that are available in the newer version -- essentially crippling your software.
Why did you spend $500 for crippled software again?
The last, most compelling reason why you must upgrade is that when your copy of office hits the End-of-Life (c)(r)(tm) stage, then you can kiss support, PATCHES and tools goodbye. Hope you didn't need a security patch for your software, 'cause it is EOL'd. Sucker.
Yeah, right.
I realize this may be slightly off-topic, but could someone from /. get that IT department to possibly field a few questions? Such as how they planned & executed the move, the size of the installed base, etc...I'd really like to see how they got that move made so fast.
Oh, see we in America have this thing called "freedom". It lets the government give powers to non-government entities like the BSA, RIAA, MPAA, etc. As the EU picks up speed, you should be experiencing such "freedom" soon, too. - Jasen.
Even with a $100,000 fine, the interviewee, Sterling Ball, said that he is ahead of the game financially by switching to open source. That is pretty amazing.
His company should consider starting up a subsidiary that switches business over to free software. He's got the expertise, he should leverage it.
evanchik.net
My biggest reservation about open and free software is that it's not obvious how I would make a living if the whole world switched. Programming is my most marketable skill* and has kept me employed for many years. I know Stallman says that we could make money supporting free software and filling in the holes, but I've always been skeptical of the demand. Ernie Ball seems to support my concern.
* My other career option is writing. That doesn't pay the bills, and, if we totally kill rather than fix copyright laws, it'll never pay.