Charity Shuns Open Source Code

brown-eyed slug writes, "The BBC has an article explaining Christian Aid's decision to use Microsoft software in preference to Linux. It re-opens the classic debate about the total cost of ownership, highlighting the wider availability of Microsoft skills, as well as the beneficial pricing policy of the Seattle giant. From the article: '...one of the things that we find is that Microsoft is viewed as the big, bad organization — but they've actually got some good corporate social responsibility. If you're a charity or an educational institution, you pay pence in the pound for the license, compared to what a major bank might pay.'" While the Christian Aid spokesman makes some good points, he seems to miss totally the idea of open code — confusing code with data.

Comments

Is this a well run IT Dept in the charity?

[xtaski]

Have you ever seen a well run IT dept in a charity? Now you know why.

Not to mention, MSFT is the crack dealer for charities - they slash prices (price discrimination?) by giving them substantial acquisition discounts - then 3 yrs later the 'grim reaper' from MSFT comes in (if they're big enough of a charity), inventories all the licenses in use and makes them pay the piper.

Fud, fud fud fud, ... fud.