Globe & Mail article on FOSS use by Cdn gov't

[Darryl Moore]

To a large extent, I agree with you. And your rationale explains why the
key to OSS penetration will be with small businesses. Small businesses
already contract out a lot of their IT HR. They have less invested in
proprietary technology, and saving a few dollars is always more
important to them.

Not to discount government sponsored OSS, which I think is important,
but I think the penetration vector into industry will come via small
business more than government.

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Darryl Moore wrote:
>> Does your definition of inertia in the article, (and this list
>> previously) include the cost of vendor lock in? That is a pretty big
>> hurdle to change for larger companies
> 
> It does, but in my experience the psychological forms of lock-in are
> even greater than the technical barriers. Managers have invested their
> own careers into one way of doing things, and that's all they know. Or
> they've allowed a small number of vendors to essentially make their IT
> strategy for them by proxy. They're scared to death of solutions that
> break that comfort zone, and even if they're cheaper and more robust and
> completely interoperable. They don't want staff that know more about the
> new tech than they do. And they don't want to make choices that until
> now they've allowed their vendors to make on their behalf. (Heck, FOSS
> completely wrecks the traditional VAR model because there's nothing to
> resell and the VAR actually has to *prove* their added value! Think of
> what FUD the VAR sector has to spread about FOSS to protect their
> interests, FUD that is readily swallowed by businesses as evidence
> against change.)
> 
> Of course, there are still technical barriers to entry, and the
> opponents of FOSS keep trying to make news ones all the time (OOXML,
> anyone?). But even when the technical barriers have been eliminated, the
> personal barriers may prove to be harder to overcome. In some cases,
> change simply will not come until people retire. Managers have become
> complacent, or too voluntarily dependent on vendors, or simply too
> scared to make any significant change on their own initiative. And
> senior management is too timid to force them out of that comfort zone --
> apparently, especially in Canada.
> 
> - Evan
> 
> 

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