Re: Mid-sized companies not interested in Linux - report

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 13:15 -0700, Tom Dison wrote:
> 1. Aren't we able to support free solutions? Right
> now, this argument probably has no weight. But in 1-5
> years, an I.T. organization that has no free software
> in its arsenal may appear somewhat archaic. How
> patient are you??

Actually, for myself, in 1994 Linux/Apache was the killer app.
Then a few years later, it was the killer development/Intranet platform.
Then it became a capable file server by the late '90s.
And in the last 4 years, it's the rock-solid financial services platform
that banks can rely on.

> 2. Don't wait for permission. I did not wait at one
> organization for them to see the .NET light (at least
> it makes MONO an option) from the VB6 world. I created
> some .NET solutions and had them ready when the need
> arose. Perhaps you could do this also, but it depends
> on how closely you time is tracked. I was able to do
> this because no one cared what I did as long as I
> provided solutions. You'd be surprised how appealing
> an "already coded" new solution is to creating a
> "yet-to-be coded" old solution. 

Yes, _lead_by_example_.  A lot of people are complacent in _poor_
solutions.  I'm talking about solutions that have lots of issues (wuch
as VB6), and there is a better (not just "newer") alternative.

Sometimes to push people to make the right choice requires you to put
forth effort to show how it would better the business.  Merely
suggesting newer does nothing.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                  b.j.smith@ieee.org 
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
Community software is all about choice, choice of technology.
Unfortunately, too many Linux advocates port over the so-called
"choice" from the commercial software world, brand name marketing.
The result is false assumptions, failure to focus on the real
technical similarities, but loyalty to blind vendor alignments.



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