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Large FLOSS Study Gets the Real Facts

Posted by kdawson on from the putting-it-all-together dept.

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.

2 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent paper! But... by Psychotria · · Score: 0, Troll

    What is the point? The conclusions in the paper (paraphrased or abbreviated):

    Upgrading office programs is time-consuming and expensive
    ...Yes...

    OpenOffice.org is free, extremely stable, and supports the ISO Open Document Standard.
    And?

    ...it is recommended to adopt a policy of both ad hoc and periodic training...
    Well, that's insightful

    This is because these costs are too much influenced by factors like inflation and market flow.
    Ok, good. A non-conclusion

    A model that differentiates between cost of migration and costs of ownership better respond to the managers' needs.
    Wow, what a breakthrough

    5. There are no extra costs due to lack of productivity arising from the use of the OOo.
    I thought the paper was about FLOSS; not just OOo. Hmm, this is a strange conclusion to make considering the report title.

  2. Re:Funding sources by poopdeville · · Score: 0, Troll

    The Soros Foundation?

    Oh christ, I'm conflicted now.

    On the right, the study supports FLOSS. On the left, it was funded by George Soros, a vomitus inducing individual.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.