[Wolves] Now I know what Vista hell is!!!!

Richard Smedley smedley358 at btinternet.com
Fri Jan 18 19:59:41 GMT 2008


On Fri, 2008-01-18 at 18:21 +0000, Mark Harrison wrote:
> In the home market, this may be true.

> In the large corporate market, this is absolutely NOT true. They know
> us, and dislike what they perceive as "fundamentalism". 
> 
> I have many years experience both working in, and as a strategy
> consultant to, some of the UK's largest companies. I have one direct
> quote from personal experience that is worth remembering:
> 
> "Whenever I meet a Linux person, they want to have a religious
> conversation. I want to have a business conversation." 
> 
> - Paul Worthington, Group IT Director, Kingfisher plc (at the time he
> said it, owner for B&Q, Comet, Woolworths and Superdrug)

It's an interesting point, Mark. Leaving aside the home market:
In the business world, company directors have a legal duty to
maximise profit, and to really care about nothing else. This 
can be seen in the stripping of our industries in the last thirty
years, export of jobs, etc.

In the government sector, there are other concerns. For example,
the importance of open formats is recognised by most governments.
Also many countries are moving to Free Software to avoid being
dependent upon a hidden codebase belonging to a foreign company.

In the third sector organisations exist to benefit the community
and the environment, and profits are made to further those ends.
Groups in this sector are unafraid to talk about ethics - in fact
they are often ready to fiercely debate them. When I worked with
businesses I sold Free Software on its practical benefits, now I
find people are interested in the values of community, sharing,
and education that define software freedom :-)

However, things are changing. More and more businesses are keen
to stress their community and green credentials, buying locally,
reducing environmental inefficiencies, and supporting
community projects. Surprisingly in tune with the times the
recent Companies Act [1] mandates directors of plcs to take
account of the community and environmental effects of decisions
that they make.

We can still sell Free Software to businesses on its benefits,
but the social benefits could now be said to count for business
too :-)

Optimistically ;)

 - Richard

[1] http://www.dti.gov.uk/bbf/co-act-2006/index.html


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Richard Smedley,                                          rs at m6-it.org
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