Help to convince politiciens in the direction of free open software

[LeoVanRomunde]

Many European Governments will have to cut down costs. Who can calculate the revenues when governments, ministries and health care would introduce an obligation to apply open software as far as possible?

Rumours say that IT for officials (PC, laptops, operating systems, office software etc.) costs pro person about 5.000 to 10.000 Euro a year. If that is true, imagine the cost reduction when Ubuntu and Open Office becomes standard in all these organizations.

We have to encourage all political parties to do so, since it is not left-wing of right-wing dependent. Therefore this message is not political but general.

[fatality_uk]

It isn't just a case of switching off Windows on a Friday and starting up FREE software on a Monday. There are a LOT of costs involved in switching to FREE software, I know I have done it for two companies now.

My estimates provided a 3-5 year ROI for every £10,000 invested with an going saving of between 15-35%.

[Meep3D]

Rumours say that IT for officials (PC, laptops, operating systems, office software etc.) costs pro person about 5.000 to 10.000 Euro a year. If that is true, imagine the cost reduction when Ubuntu and Open Office becomes standard in all these organizations.

We have to encourage all political parties to do so, since it is not left-wing of right-wing dependent. Therefore this message is not political but general.

It's clearly a left-wing agenda is the aim is to spread 'software freedom' rather than providing the best, most cost effective tool for the job (whatever that may be).

The giveaway is the FUD of '5.000 to 10.000 Euro's' implying that this money will be saved when only a small fraction of that is probably software licenses with the many bespoke software platforms that will probably need to be entirely rewritten conveniently ignored.

Linux and FOSS should certainly be considered, but assuming it is the 'best' choice without knowing a thing about requirements makes you no better than MS's marketing department.

[kamaboko]

To the OP, do you work for free? If so, I've got several jobs to keep you busy for the next 40 years of your life.

The flip side to FOSS is that millions of people depend on making a living through developing software. Funny, I never hear anything about "free hardware". It's the software people who are expected to fall on the sword.