[NTLUG:Discuss] Any open source success stories?

[m m]

>From: Lance Simmons <simmons at acad.udallas.edu>
>Reply-To: discuss at ntlug.org
>To: discuss at ntlug.org
>Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Any open source success stories?
>Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 17:33:56 -0600
>
>Fellow NTLUG'ers,
>
>I'm on a committee at my university that's deliberating now
>about what to do about software for the university's
>undergraduate school. Most people on the committee want us to
>renew a deal with microsoft in which faculty and staff get lots
>of microsoft software and all of our students get to buy lots of
>microsoft software for ridicuously low prices (compared to what
>those students' eventual employers will have to pay for the same
>software, which will be the only software they'll know how to
>use).

It is very good to see someone forsee this "problem".

>I'd like to persuade people on the committee to look into other
>possible sources of software, but I'm not as clear as I'd like
>to be about what exactly is possible now with free software.
>Does anyone have any success stories about institutions that
>have moved away from microsoft products in one area or another
>and lived to tell the tale? Microsoft seems to be primarily
>interested in selling educational institutions total packages
>that cover the entire line of microsoft software from top to
>bottom, and this creates a lot of pressure on us to go microsoft
>all the way.

what kind of software are you looking for? for the general use in the 
office, for CSE student do the programming project, or for servers...
you can get them free. some of them you need to use Linux operating system 
(OS) not Bill Gate's Windows.

>
>One of the concerns people have expressed about free software is
>that "you can't get support for it". Is that still true?
>
I think this may keeping you from trying other OS systems. Yes, there are 
professional supports as other has posted.
my experiance is when you use a new OS (for example, Linux), you will have a 
lot of problems at the beginning and people will complain it...(all those 
happens because them don't familiar with it), but all the problem will 
sloved, sooner or later. The pain is some problems you want them to be fixed 
right away, but you cann't. (well, it happens on everything.)
if you have some staff have computer/software trouble shooting background to 
halp you, you should no problem using them. again, the problem will be fixed 
sooner or later. (sometimes you will need spend a lot of effort to fixed.)

>Our school has about 1,200 undergraduates, and maybe 250
>employees. (I don't really know the number of employees, but
>that's a guess.) We also have an MBA school with about 2,500
>students, but they make their technology decisions apart from
>the undergraduate school.
>
>Does anyone have any encouraging words, or should I just go
>along with the proposal to sign up for the microsoft package
>deal once again, so our students will be able to buy microsoft
>office suites for $15 or whatever?

I beleve there are lot of people very successful using free software, either 
in personal or business. I am successful use free e-mail server, web server, 
database, word process...

I think you may get a pressure, if you do not sign up for MS deal. and/or if 
you switch/migrate a new system, you will get a lot complian in the 
beginning. the best way is you may start try use some free software in the 
beginning in a small scale.
Cann't you have other options and microsoft pagkage in your proposal.?

good luck!
>
>Lance Simmons
>_______________________________________________
>http://ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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