[Gllug] Some scruffy nerds

[Dave Cridland [Home]]

On Sat, 23 Nov 2002 12:27:59 +0000
Gordon Joly <gordon.joly at pobox.com> wrote:
> Always give the secrets away. Be honest with clients (within reason), 
> tell them the Microsoft is an *expensive* solution that will bind 
> them in pact with Uncle Bill Gates and Brother Steve "Developers, 
> developers, developers!" Ballmer for ever and ever. Cousin Steve Jobs 
> is the highest paid executive in America, whilst Apple suffer severe 
> financial problems...
> 
> Tell 'em about open source, explain that you may have to pay for
> support...

I couldn't agree more. When pitching Linux solutions to clients, I've
always explained that the only cost saving they'll see is likely to be
in terms of the initial investment - something that's usually the
highest single figure.

I then explain that they could usefully use part of that saving to buy
better hardware to run their systems off - hardware RAID, perhaps, or
even multiple servers, under some circumstances. This in turn can lower
their support costs, since the time pressure is reduced somewhat when
things go wrong.

I also tend to point out that there's a huge variety of Linux support
folk, as well as considerably more documeentation available about Linux,
so they'll never be held to ransom by any single company, including us.

The overall package, then, is of a lower initial cost, with better
hardware in the package, and in many cases a reduced support cost with
fewer strings attached.

The hardest sells on that basis tend to be those companies which have an
internal sysadmin team used to Windows. For some reason I've never fully
understood, Linux sysadmins seem to be able to crosstrain to Windows
easier than the other way around, in my highly unscientifically based
experience.

Dave.

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