Updated: 23-Jul-2014
In episode 233, Troy provided us with his (and his company's) recommendations on which applications are best accepted by his Small Business customers switching to Linux. In fact, we wrote an article on the website detailing the list. Now we'd like to give you things to consider when attempting to get Linux and Open Source software adopted in your company.
If you’ve ever mentioned open source software in your day-to-day job, your comments would likely have been met with a spectrum of reaction between two extremes. On the one-hand, the "technical insider", someone who is already familiar with the world of Free Software and Open Source software, is likely to already know the benefits that it could bring to a business. They may, in fact, be very frustrated at not being able to convince management to use more of it. On the other hand, the "corporate insider", someone who is entrenched in profit and loss, increasing revenues and running the business, is likely to be blissfully ignorant that software licenses exist that can offer the freedom and flexibility of open source.
Since the latter are more likely to be the decision-makers in the organization, these are the people you need to convince. If you don't, your efforts will be shot down before you get very far.
Writing on OpenSource.com, Robin Isard gives some practical advice on how to introduce the idea of open source in business.
Here is our addition to this advice:
On GitHub, Mozilla's Nick Desauliniers' experiment with the topic "What Open Source Means To Me" yielded a number of interesting results that reveal that the technical insider’s view of open source is positive overall.
But what about the business side? Katherine Noyes in PC World reports that "Executives are increasingly willing to work with open source communities to spur innovation." Citing Black Duck's "Future of Open Source" annual surveys, Noyes indicates that the top 3 reasons behind choosing open source in 2012 and 2013 were better quality software, freedom from vendor lock-in, and flexibility of/access to large software libraries.
The 2014 "The Future of Open Source" survey says that quality is once again the top driving force behind businesses choosing open source.
So here are 6 key advantages of using Open Source-licensed software that you can focus on when you make your case:
Theme music for the Going Linux podcast is generously provided by Mark Blasco. https://www.podcastthemes.com
Going Linux Podcast by Larry Bushey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.