Re: Suggestions?

["mike808" <mike808@users.sourceforge.net>]

> (primarily software solutions that get around the
> licensing problems for  businesses when audited).

Don't use the term "get around the licensing problems".
Perhaps "eliminate the licensing problems" by proposing software
with "worry-free unlimited licensing". Meaning the licensing is not
strictly controlled and limited by the software vendor. You can point
to the savings of not having to pay IT employees to do software licensing
audits every time a new upgrade comes out, or the risk/cost (PR, fines,
etc.) of a "raid" by the BSA, perhaps triggered by a disgruntled employee.

That is a very real cost you should point out needs to be included when
your prospective client is calculating "Total Cost of Ownership" (TCO).
In addition to calculating support costs, which in non-GPL software,
is often based on the number and types of licenses. GPL and "free"
software support is often priced per incident or time basis. Thus, you
can purchase only what you need, and often, more importantly, *as* you
need it. Unlike the pre-paid "use it or lose it" (and sometimes, even
*required*) plans offered by other software vendors.

> not sure what else to do a quick show of.

MySQL. Runs on Windows too. A *much* better data storage location
than a MS-Access database. There's not a really good MS-Access front-end
replacement, but MySQL is a *much* more economical solution than
MS-SQLServer, especially for the kind of data typically being held hostage
in a MDB, or if you need multi-user access to MDBs.

SAMBA. Replace and eliminate any licensing costs for NT/Win2K servers
that are only being used as print and/or file servers. This is perhaps
the biggest moneysaver of all.

Less importantly, for webserving, there's Apache (which can run mod_perl
and mod_php). Although IIS is "free", switching to Apache really won't
save you any money (since you still need to license the Win2K Server
it runs on), and you have to abandon ASP (although ChiliSoft makes an
ASP for *nixes). But, if you want to develop/test websites in-house that
use the same environment as perhaps your production (or outsourced)
websites do, it can make a lot of sense.

For folks into enterprise application development or are already into
Java application development, there is Sun's Java SDK (as well as IBM's).
On top of that there is the J2EE environments from Sun, one from JBoss,
the servlet container Tomcat, Xerces for XML, and Xalan for XSLT.

But those last ones are hard to "demo" at a meet and greet.

I'd also be wary of OpenGroupware at this early stage. It's not quite
done, and the MS Outlook "plug-in" is not free and requires a per-seat
licensing, so it's not quite an Exchange-killer app yet. In a year, it
could be a knockout offering like OpenOffice.

As OpenOffice alternatives, there's Gnumeric for spreadsheets
and AbiWord for word processing.

And then there's the mother-of-all-Windows-app-killers --- WINE.
Crossover Office can help people still use their Windows apps until
they have found and are comfortable using a Free Software alternative.
And the $70 for XO is cheap compared to the $200 for another Windows
license.

If you're looking for a good distro with excellent MS integration,
I can't recommend Xandros more. Very Windows-friendly for the refugee.
Comes with XO. XP partition resizer. OpenOffice, Mozilla 1.3.1, aliased
fonts, LinNeighborhood browsing, clickey-clickey add-a-printer, all
ready-to-go out of the box after an install. And it's Debian-based.

I know there are folks that don't like Xandros, but IMO, they're a better
choice than Lindows, which seems to be their direct competition.

Mike808/



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