No subject

The need to use computers to do business (and the desire to use them for
leisure) keeps everyone in the IT industry in work.  The wasted money IT
departments throw at flakey tools is a major reason that company directors
have lost faith in IT other the last 5 - 10 years and a major reason why IT
departments (which are nearly always an overhead) have been hit extremely
hard in the recent downturn (and why there are a lot of people looking for
work right now).  

It's easy for an IT support company or consultant to believe that flakey
software equals greater profits (afterall, the less reliable the software
the more time on site and the more money can be charged) but the reality is
this: if a vendor provides unreliable software that costs a lot to maintain
then businesses will look for other ways of servicing their needs.  For the
last eight years a lot of businesses were only offered a choice between
which Microsoft Solution Providor to choose from - now they are slowly
learning that they have a choice.  If businesses can be reassured that Open
Source Software is a better way and will save them money they _will_ move
that way, the trick is making the board familiar with the name.

I've always thought it would be great to run a full page add in the FT, The
Wall Street Journal the Times and the New York Times that just read "If your
IT director doesn't have a Open Source strategy then he/she isn't doing
their job properly".  I'd love that just because one out of every ten CEO's
might just turn round and ask the question.

>It just case of better the devil you know.

That one I do understand.  That is the most common attitude I encounter.  

5 years ago the question in the press was "is LINUX ready for the enterpise
server room?" - now nobody doubts that fact.  A conservative estimate from
December 2002 says that one in every five servers on the planet is now
running LINUX. What has changed? Well technically not that much (or at least
not much your average IT manager would notice), it's just that these people
have got used to hearing about LINUX on servers and they see big companies
(IBM, HP, Sun..) promoting it there. 

The point is, LINUX has been in the media for years now, and we're starting
to make inroads.  It's a build up of pressure that eventually allows people
to believe LINUX is a viable option.  One of the greatest goals of
advertising is to make people aware of a product.  Advertisers realise that
most people don't see an advert and istantly go out and buy the product -
they make a name become familiar to us .  We are essentially cautious
animals.  When we buy things we look for a name we know, and we assume that
because we know the name it must be a good company and/or product. 
Here's a couple of examples of the power of marketing over the layman (if
you know the subjects these are easier questions):

What's the better make of archtop guitar?  A Fender or a D'Angelico?
What's the better make of amplifier? 	A Sony or a Rotel?
What's a better database server ?		Microsoft SQL Server or
PostgresSQL?

In all these examples there isn't actually a hard and fast answer - the
question does not take account of specific needs or preferences.  The key
thing here is that in every case the uneducated man who is just looking for
something to do the job would plump for the Fender, the Sony and Microsoft
SQL server.

<snip>

Anyhow, once again, welcome!

-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

"Injustice is happening now; suffering is happening now. We have choices to
make now. To insist on absolute certainty before starting to apply ethics to
life decisions is a way of choosing to be amoral."
   - Richard M Stallman


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