Slashdot Mirror
Large FLOSS Study Gets the Real Facts
Hans Kwint writes "The European Commission's enterprise and industry department has just released the final draft of what could be the biggest academic interdisciplinary study on the economic / innovative impacts of free/libre/open source software (1.8-MB PDF). The study was done by an international consortium led by the United Nations University / University of Maastricht. The lead researcher, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, has overseen a large volume of FLOSS studies in the last few years, including ones on FLOSS policies and worldwide FLOSS adoption. This academic-grade study has a very broad scope and has collected real-world information that is valuable for both companies and government bodies thinking about migration. The study is about the economic impact of FLOSS, not excluding the hidden indirect impact. It compares scenarios of open and proprietary software futures of Europe. The study looks at the FLOSS's competitiveness compared to proprietary software and also provides a few TCO comparison case-studies.
Yeah, sure. It's a study. That's nice. What does it say?
I'm not going to read a 1.8 mb PDF TFA unless I know whether or not its conclusions agree with my predisposed bias!
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
For those that don't know, FLOSS stands for 'Free Linux Open Source Software'.
;-)
Nonsense! The 'L' stands for "lossless" - FLOSS is much better than the lossy Closed Source Software out there
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
FLOSS and get out all of that grimy, proprietary software - wait, I think you still have some M$ in your teeth!
This is stupid! It's the biggest load of crap I've ever seen! I wonder who paid them to write this?
What? Generally favourable?
Well, it's about time someone did a proper study! I'm glad to see there are some people who aren't complete corporate shills!
Well. You know. Libre as in beer.
M$ is 'intelligent design', and FLOSS is punctuated equilibrium.
No one gets fired for buying Microsoft is similar to the fall from grace: simple ideas that stop thought in it's tracks and stop the discussion of a whole host of inconsistencies in the record.
Remember, "Balmer doesn't play dice with the Operating System..."
When the country falls into chaos, politicians talk about 'patriotism'. Lao-Tzu
Maybe tag with !dental to avoid confusion.
FTFMS: The existing base of quality FLOSS applications with reasonable quality control and
distribution would cost firms almost Euro 12 billion to reproduce internally.
It's surely possible make that many lines of code for 12 billion euro's. But could it provide the same functionality? One of the strengths of FLOSS is the recycling of code. A closed system would need many more lines of code to get the same functionality.
On the other hand, would a closed system build 287 different end-user apps for playing mp3's?
Trust me, I work for the government.
> Costs to migrate to an open solution are relevant and an organization needs to consider an extra effort for this. However these costs are temporary and manly are budgeted in less than one year.
Got that, folks? These are manly costs, so tell your boss no one will think he's gay for switching to OSS.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade