0

http://chasesagum.com

My wife and I started a web development company back in June of this past year 2007. In doing so we sought out using open source applications to help us run our business from the beginning to help us save money. I will share with you what open source applications we have been able to use instead saving us an estimated about of $100,000 and counting.

Full story »
Jimbob's picture
Created by Jimbob 14 years 18 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 18 weeks ago
Category: Business   Tags:
maryriley's picture

maryriley

14 years 18 weeks 3 hours 46 min ago

0

The Cost!

Just when I was starting to forget how expensive software was, I saw this post. I haven't used anything that wasn't open-source in years. I don't know how people pay $500+ for MS Office when they can use OpenOffice and Evolution for free.

http://thedailyubuntu.blogspot.com/

aboutblank's picture

aboutblank

14 years 18 weeks 12 min 55 sec ago

0

They pay for office so they

They pay for office so they can share their documents with other people that have paid the MS tax.

crimperman's picture

crimperman

14 years 17 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago

0

hmm

FTA : "I won’t waste my time and explain to you the paid software applications we were interested in purchasing. But rather, I will share with you what open source applications we have been able to use instead saving us an estimated about of $100,000 and counting. "

Now don't get me wrong - I *know* that using Free Software can save you thousands - I just get a little worried when I see this kind of statement. If you're going to say that using open source (or more specifically *not* using particular proprietary products) saved you $100k then you really need to mention at least some of the proprietary products. Otherwise it's just numbers with no evidence.

I do believe they saved a lot of money by using FOSS but $100k is a very round number and we can't be sure they haven't just looked up the retail prices on Amazon. The truth is that the price you pay for proprietary software varies from customer to customer. Bulk-licence and multi-application discounts and special offers abound. It's a cut throat market and it's not often you pay the RRP or even the listed price. So it's very hard to gauge how much it would cost you unless you have gone and done it. This is why it's not always so wise to make these kinds of arguments.

When M$ say that Linux is encroaching on 250 of their patents - we call it FUD unless they can come up with the list of patents. Is this any less FUD just because it's going in the other direction?

I just think we need to be careful of this kind of thing.

Best karma users