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How To Approve the Use of Open Source On the Job

Posted by Unknown on from the who-can-we-sue dept.

New submitter Czech37 (918252) writes "If you work in an organization that isn't focused on development, where computer systems are used to support other core business functions, getting management buy-in for the use of open source can be tricky. Here's how an academic librarian negotiated with his management to get them to give open source software a try, and the four phrases he recommends you avoid using." "Open Source," "Free [Software]," "Contribute," and "Development" appear to scare managers away.

1 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. "free" is a synonym for "junk." by Osgeld · · Score: 0, Troll

    and they are typically correct

    otherwise free software isnt free, you have to take perfectly good machine with working software package, take the time to remove all that reinstall free software that may or may not do the job (IE bill makes a presentation on MS office and java office pukes the formatting right in front of the customer), Then who is going to support it when it doesnt work? Are you going to hunt bugs all day, don't you have a job to do? Who is going to retrain everyone, I know OS's are fundamentally similar, but Jesus move an icon and Mary can no longer function?

    non software company's don't want to deal with that, they want to go to dell.com, choose a box click the option for MS office and be done with it. Its cheap, it works with everybody else, just about everyone knows how to use it, and it doesnt take months to restructure your entire IT system ... for what? A political statement.