[Gllug] Voluntary work

[itsbruce at uklinux.net]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 09:07:19AM +0000, Rev Simon Rumble wrote:
> On Thu 13 Nov, Jason Clifford bloviated thus:
> 
> > Copyright infringement as part of a commercial concern is a criminal 
> > offence. Perhaps the trustees of the charity just need to be told along 
> > with a note pointing out that Free Software can provide what they need 
> > without draining their financial resources on license fees and higher TCO.
> 
> This is a strategy just ripe for MS to match and make themselves look
> good.  All they have to do is "donate" their software to charities,
> they get the lock-in they want and get to write off the "donation" as
> a tax deduction.

MS already offer their software at hugely discounted prices to charities
and educational establishments.  In these and other cases they recognise
that it is more important for their software to be ubiquitous than
expensive.

Add to this the fact that many voluntary sector organisations don't have
an IT department, just one or two staff who are judged to be "good with
computers" and who fill in on top of their other work.  Even in larger
organisations, the IT department is likely to be staffed by a mixture of
people who moved sideways from accounts/fundraising and people who moved
from minor IT jobs in the commercial sector.  They tend not to be people
who feel comfortable with Linux and Open Source.

Arguments about the potential cost savings of Free Software will be less
persuasive than you seem to think.  The cost restraints imposed by the
fact that many voluntary sector organisations don't want to spend much
on IT (I'm thankful to work for one of the exceptions) makes them more
conservative and more dependent on MS, not less.  

Don't forget that Linux (and most Open Source software) requires a
higher level of skills from those who would manage it effectively.  Many
charities simply don't employ IT staff with those skills (or the spare
time or even the ability to acquire them).

As for trying to scare them into using Free Software, I can see that
tactic backfiring in a very bad way.

-- 
Bruce

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