Hello Mark,
On Fri, 2008-01-25 at 14:35 +0000, MJ Ray wrote: > I agree with the point about emote and practice being different - in > practice, most of our travel is sustainable (cycles and trains) but > we've not (yet?) taken the government money that I think was available > to publish/emote a Green Travel Plan for our business. Have you an URL? > A related Q: is starting a new enterprise with 100% free software much > easier than switching an existing one away from proprietary software? Without doubt - but there are still many areas in my sector with no Free Software. E.g. Credit Unions (we're working on it); Dial-a-ride services (everyone gets small firms to write proprietary apps for them with VBA); benefits advice (but at least the main software runs well on WINE, so not a barrier to platform change); case management (seriously - lot's of apps available, few good enough); even the right groupware is a problem - eg if the CEO has a blackberry. > Does that suggest barriers to entry are raised by proprietary software > producers? Well, only in that they use VBA instead of real languages, and Access instead of real databases (actually one major app is on the discontinued FoxPro). > Are such barriers fair or in keeping with a free market? What free market ;-P Seriously, the inertia is as much with support organisations and advisors. Follow the main lists for techies and web designers in the third sector and you'll see a strong, automatic preference for MS & other proprietary software from those in charge. This is reflected in "Open Source" trials that seem designed to fail, and all FOSS squeezed into minimal "open source" conference tracks :-( - Richard (not bitter at all, no really ;) _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
