[TriLUG] Fwd: Sign this Petition - Explain why taxpayers pay out billions to Microsoft and get nothing in return, while Linux is free!

[Jeremy Davis]

>You shouldn't be preferring that if you have to pay a lot of guys like me
>$100/hr to reach solutions in open source, when proprietary solutions are
>already available off the shelf.

So I have always heard and read that open source solutions come with a
price, hiring engineers etc.. Sure it would cost more in the
beginning, however, wouldn't it pay off in the long run? Or is it more
of a complicated "it depends" kind of thing. I am only asking because
I don't know.

For example, lets say instead of using M$ desktop, the government
decides to use a Linux desktop environment such as Mint, with Libre
Office, Firefox or Chrome browser, GIMP, Thunderbird, and whatever
else for the purpose of doing basic clerical administrative work. How
much more could it possibly cost? How long before most of the bugs are
worked out. The best benefit of all may be better support for
development of standards. Instead of using Sharepoint, I think Drupal,
Wordpress, wikis and mailing lists would get the job done better right
off the shelf.


On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Brandon Van Every <bvanevery at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 11:51 AM, Jeremy Davis
> <jeremydavis at jeremydavis.biz>wrote:
>
>>
>> As far as the TCO analysis goes, it may be cheaper in many cases to
>> use proprietary software, however, as a tax payer I would still prefer
>> investing in something I can have and use after it is paid for vs
>> something licensed that I can't touch or even see the code to verify
>> what we paid for. If tax dollars paid for our highways to be built and
>> then a private company charged tolls indefinitely to use them, people
>> would protest. However, most people in the general public probably
>> don't realize their tax dollars could be improving the software they
>> have available.
>>
>>
> You shouldn't be preferring that if you have to pay a lot of guys like me
> $100/hr to reach solutions in open source, when proprietary solutions are
> already available off the shelf.
>
>
>>
>> BTW you can petition anything. Someone started a petition to build a
>> Death Star by 2016 and it received over 100000 signatures plus a
>> response from the Administration.
>>
>> https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/isnt-petition-response-youre-looking
>>
>>
> Well as long as using the system as a comedy channel is done in
> moderation....
>
>
> Cheers,
> Brandon
> --
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