well there is the perpetuality of foss+gpl that is good too, but i still think money talks, and you can't compete with free
They don't think the software is important
most fortune 500 have already invested in linux for data center use... this is gradually filtering down to smaller companies (this one is probably more limited by access to local expertise rather than trust in foss)
They (feel they) are basically forced to use that vendor and don't have a choice in the matter
this is true... the oem landscape has been microsoft-centric, but more oems are offering linux as an alternative, including dell (http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/linux-solutions) and ibm (http://www-03.ibm.com/linux/systems.html). i'm sure consumer oems like toshiba will eventually offer linux (probably vendor distributions like ubuntu or red hat) preinstalled as an option. there is also the ecosystem problem; once you have significant legacy data in proprietary microsoft formats it can be difficult (and costly) to migrate to open formats; things like access databases for example
if the company goes out of business or stops development we can buy the source for $x
liquidation can be a nasty affair, and just because a contract has such a clause is by no means a guarantee it will be honored. bankruptsy hearings determine how assets are liquidated, and if source code is allocated to a creditor, it's unlikely that any other company will get to see it (the court will simply rule such contractual clauses unenforceable). if you're lucky you might be able to work out a deal with the creditor, assuming you can even find out who they are.
given that this is about saving money they will more likely end up just being an open source leech
with so many people leeching off welfare paid for by taxpayers, what's wrong with government doing a little leeching on behalf of the taxpayer?
besides, who really uses foss for any other reason than because it's free? freedom is great, but most people don't require any more freedom from foss than they would from proprietary (since most are just end users)... what's important is the free as in free beer aspect. corporations fill up entire data centers with servers run on foss because it's cheaper (and more reliable, but mainly cheaper).
do you have an internet router? if so you're likely leeching from the foss community yourself
software doesn't get stale because it doesn't degrade over time, and people update software for various reasons
sometimes an update is necessary merely because old versions don't work on operating systems that come preinstalled on new PCs, because unlike software hardware does degrade over time and people eventually need to replace their computer hardware
bugs are annoying, especially when you are at the mercy of a closed source software vendor like microsoft
luckily for libreoffice there's lots of people working on fixing bugs and thanks to the gpl those fixes will always be free... can't beat free
MS Office has no competition as a jack-of-all-trades
LibreOffice can do pretty much everything MS Office can do and more, with the exception of MS Access... which is only good for little things and becomes an unreliable piece of crap once you start using it over a network or approaching its limitations (like number of jet connections). Governments should have already long since banned using Access for anything anyway as there are much better tools for enterprise database (such as LAMP, with Maria or Postgre instead of MySQL because Oracle sucks frosty piss, and c'mon PHP isn't *that* bad - especially compared to assp or python).
I don't think it's a suitable solution to save money
if you're happy to pay good money for microsoft office when there is a free alternative available, i think your concept of saving money is a bit flawed
too many usability issues
ribbons?
reliable solution for getting actual work done
it's plenty reliable if you are willing to try it... gladly the UK government seems willing to... good for them (and UK taxpayers)
i doubt microsoft and apple think of being on "android welfare" as being a good business model... especially when android winds up putting their mobile divisions out of business
Even the poorest always have the ability to 'leave their country' unless the border is kept closed somehow
have you seen any US border crossings lately? they are crawling with feds... you can't even fart without providing ID, and good luck going anywhere if you're on a government watch list
google "boat people"
poor people can't even get to the border let alone afford visas and whatnot to leave the US and be accepted in the target country
Slashdot Mirror
well there is the perpetuality of foss+gpl that is good too, but i still think money talks, and you can't compete with free
They don't think the software is important
most fortune 500 have already invested in linux for data center use... this is gradually filtering down to smaller companies (this one is probably more limited by access to local expertise rather than trust in foss)
They (feel they) are basically forced to use that vendor and don't have a choice in the matter
this is true... the oem landscape has been microsoft-centric, but more oems are offering linux as an alternative, including dell (http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/linux-solutions) and ibm (http://www-03.ibm.com/linux/systems.html). i'm sure consumer oems like toshiba will eventually offer linux (probably vendor distributions like ubuntu or red hat) preinstalled as an option.
there is also the ecosystem problem; once you have significant legacy data in proprietary microsoft formats it can be difficult (and costly) to migrate to open formats; things like access databases for example
if the company goes out of business or stops development we can buy the source for $x
liquidation can be a nasty affair, and just because a contract has such a clause is by no means a guarantee it will be honored. bankruptsy hearings determine how assets are liquidated, and if source code is allocated to a creditor, it's unlikely that any other company will get to see it (the court will simply rule such contractual clauses unenforceable). if you're lucky you might be able to work out a deal with the creditor, assuming you can even find out who they are.
still seems like an aweful lot of cost and effort fighting a battle they can't possibly win... it's tough keeping stockholders happy i guess
given that this is about saving money they will more likely end up just being an open source leech
with so many people leeching off welfare paid for by taxpayers, what's wrong with government doing a little leeching on behalf of the taxpayer?
besides, who really uses foss for any other reason than because it's free? freedom is great, but most people don't require any more freedom from foss than they would from proprietary (since most are just end users)... what's important is the free as in free beer aspect. corporations fill up entire data centers with servers run on foss because it's cheaper (and more reliable, but mainly cheaper).
do you have an internet router? if so you're likely leeching from the foss community yourself
software doesn't get stale because it doesn't degrade over time, and people update software for various reasons
sometimes an update is necessary merely because old versions don't work on operating systems that come preinstalled on new PCs, because unlike software hardware does degrade over time and people eventually need to replace their computer hardware
bugs are annoying, especially when you are at the mercy of a closed source software vendor like microsoft
luckily for libreoffice there's lots of people working on fixing bugs and thanks to the gpl those fixes will always be free... can't beat free
MS Office has no competition as a jack-of-all-trades
LibreOffice can do pretty much everything MS Office can do and more, with the exception of MS Access... which is only good for little things and becomes an unreliable piece of crap once you start using it over a network or approaching its limitations (like number of jet connections). Governments should have already long since banned using Access for anything anyway as there are much better tools for enterprise database (such as LAMP, with Maria or Postgre instead of MySQL because Oracle sucks frosty piss, and c'mon PHP isn't *that* bad - especially compared to assp or python).
I don't think it's a suitable solution to save money
if you're happy to pay good money for microsoft office when there is a free alternative available, i think your concept of saving money is a bit flawed
too many usability issues
ribbons?
reliable solution for getting actual work done
it's plenty reliable if you are willing to try it... gladly the UK government seems willing to... good for them (and UK taxpayers)
how they think or feel about it will have NO bearing on how "the decider" decides
nobody may have ever been fired for choosing microsoft, but money talks and bullshit walks
also, when dealing with anything government-related, if budget cuts are required, the union will make the decision
using your same argument, microsoft has only one way to go too
when you incorrectly shut-down most linux distro's you'll actually destroy your OS
quick, someone should inform all those *idiots* that filled up countless data centers with linux blades... if the ups fails, they are all toast!
Xeon 3.5GHz Haswell, 32GB of ram, and an nVidia GTX 460 w/ 768 MB of GDDR5
Stacraft 2
...why?
microsoft is on "android welfare"
if you think that's good for microsoft i suggest you go get a job
Microsoft Android Tax and Apple Android Tax
i doubt microsoft and apple think of being on "android welfare" as being a good business model... especially when android winds up putting their mobile divisions out of business
Presidential Medal of Freedom
irony much?
makes for a cheap marketing campaign for linux ;-)
ever used "--" in a conversation?
Yeah cos it's not like there's anything wrong wih beginning a sentence with "And".
maybe they think they'll be able to 3D-print a new operating system?
Pee-Testing Programmers
good idea... fuck knows what drugs the windows 8 developers at microshaft are on
you forgot
* and your 3d printer will only come with windows 8 drivers and bloatware
Snowden should have dumped the data into the public immediately and in one huge batch to show the extent of the perversion of our freedoms and rights
one problem with that... you're assuming the public would even care let alone know what to make of it
Oh yes!! Then Microsoft could rename itself "SCO One" :-)
something like MicrosoftDrive should be pretty safe
guess they don't want any association with "that" brand... can't say i blame them
Even the poorest always have the ability to 'leave their country' unless the border is kept closed somehow
have you seen any US border crossings lately? they are crawling with feds... you can't even fart without providing ID, and good luck going anywhere if you're on a government watch list
google "boat people"
poor people can't even get to the border let alone afford visas and whatnot to leave the US and be accepted in the target country
i'm not trying to differentiate microsoft's apex product line and a fresh turd
actually... if you lay your computer monitor flat on the floor face up, and then take a dump on it, you could call that "metro"
school is for teaching kids critical thinking so they can filter out all the garbage in google search results