Following this, I wondered about the actual numbers, and the size of those "barge-loads" of money. Given we're to a large degree talking around ESRI, the simple option is to look at their most recent UK accounts (I know where to easily find UK ones): https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01288342/filing-history/MzE1MjUzMTc5MGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0 (PDF)
They show £50 million in revenue in 2015, with £22 million of that being "Cost of Sales". If my very basic accounting knowledge is correct (possibly not, but google did help), this is money ESRI have paid to others for goods they've sold, i.e. software licenses given they don't sell physical widgets. It doesn't include their own admin costs. Some of that £22 million is going to be going to their partners (Oracle are known for their exorbitant licenses after all), but I'd be surprised if less than £15 million of that is going to the ESRI US mothership. Of that say about half is coming from the public sector, that's about £7 million (which is a conservative guess IMHO - ESRI UK will probably have kept a portion after all too which won't be in the £22 million). It's not a massive number, but it's not chump change either. Steven's 0.01% is still a lot if the absolute numbers are large. By contract, I can think of a few Open Surce projects that would love to benefit from a portion of £7 million a year spent, and everyone would benefit. (Or it could reduce taxes for everyone in the UK by about 10p a person per year! :-) ). Cheers, Jonathan (Disclaimer - guesswork in the above; don't cite me.) ---- On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 13:38:59 +0100 Luís Moreira de Sousa<luis.de.so...@protonmail.ch> wrote ---- Dear all, In my experience maintenance and operational costs are far higher with proprietary software than with open source. With some licenced products operational costs are actually the largest slice of the budget. But well, that is only the experience of a single individual. However, in these matters we should always apply a macroscopic view. It is far more rational to hire a local company to maintain and develop a particular open source solution, than to send barge-loads of money overseas on licence fees. Open source can be employed as a powerful economic policy tool, directing investment and job creation to where they are most needed. Cheers. -- Luís Moreira de Sousa Im Grund 6 CH-8600 Dübendorf Switzerland Phone: +41 (0)79 812 62 65 Email: luis.de.so...@protonmail.ch URL: https://sites.google.com/site/luismoreiradesousa _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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