Hoi,
I have learned from some organisations who also do things that can be
considered as charitable. They told me that as a consequence of the Gates
Foundation and its activities many things are no longer accepted because
this notion of giving away and consequently forcing people to buy into
upgrade schemes etc is not accepted any more in the same way as it used to
be.
As to libraries and their software, I just read the other day of another
great open source project that targets the administration of libraries and
is really efficient at this. I forgot its name ..
Thanks,
GerardM
On 1/1/07, Anthony <wikilegal(a)inbox.org> wrote:
On 12/31/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Anthony wrote:
Interesting... They're donating computers
pre-loaded with Windows and
providing technical support and training. Would they still donate the
computers if the library told them they intended to install Linux on
them? Maybe. But would they still provide the free technical support
and training for those libraries? Somehow I doubt it (although it
would be really cool if they did).
Why would those libraries _want_ to install Linux? The primary reason
for free software evaporates when they are spared the costs of
proprietary licences.
I'm sure entire books have been written on why one should use free
software rather than no-cost software. If you really have trouble
finding information on this let me know and I'll do a better search
for some resources. Or maybe someone else can provide us with some?
But for the purposes of this discussion, it's enough for me to merely
point out that the software license being given to the libraries does
not entitle that library to free upgrades. That alone should be
enough reason to prefer Linux, if all other things were equal. the
clear strategy here of Microsoft, if not the Gates Foundation, is to
give it away for free, get 'em hooked, and then start charging.
Of course, all other things aren't equal. If the library gets free
support from the Gates Foundation with Windows, and doesn't get free
support with Linux (which tends to be more costly to support in the
first place), then it's going to be really hard for them to choose
Linux.
If the Gates Foundation really wants to help the libraries, then they
should help the libraries free themselves from relying on the
continued charity of Microsoft.
Anthony
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