[Sussex] The Definitive Desktop Environment Comparison

[Mark Harrison]

Nik wrote:

> my rebuttal is coming but I wanted to read the report first !

Glad to see you're independant and unbiased as well then... Some people would
have been tempted to read the report before deciding that it needed a rebuttal.
:-)

I genuinely believe, having been both an IT manager for 10 years, and now as a
consultant that the biggest thing HAMPERING the adoption of open-source is the
fact that many of the proponents come in and immediately start rubbishing
Microsoft. It never ceases to amaze me how little the Linux community seems to
understand that most IT managers regard this as very disturbing.

I had a drink with the IT Director of one of the UK's 50 largest companies last
week, and had exactly this debate with him. He said: "I don't want to have a
religious debate. I don't want to have a philosophical debate. I want to have a
business debate about what this [Open Source] can do to help drive down costs."

Having a strong vision of what we, as IT professionals, managers and consultants
can do to improve the business of our clients is absolutely vital to making a
difference. However, that vision has to be positive, and every breath we draw
trying to cast down the most succesful IT company in the history of the world
detracts from our ability to focus on what we SHOULD be doing.

Mark