Hi, Mr. Ng favors MS, and I respect his choice.... He/his company is still one of our suppliers. But only to a limited extent, because from the start we have been using 100% opensource/free software in the office. (Mr. Ng and staff were not able to offer a product comparable to Opensource/Free software...)
Regarding his article you may want to bring this to the attention of Mr. Stallman, Mr. Torvalds, etc..... Once I did have a talk with Mr. Ng regarding Opensource(Linux in particular). He gave an analogy with a fine restaurant and a not so fine restaurant... MS & GNU/Linux.... Well that's his opinion. We may or may not share his opinion, and we are free to choose... :) "Why slay a beast? Only to become a beast yourself." --- Manny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Here's some really BS from another M$ lackey. > > It would seem Mr. Ng here never even bothered to > question the financial > analysis of his "client", and instead used what were > probably major errors > to push for M$. He also completely misunderstands > the GPL when he thinks > open source software mauy not remain free. He seems > to think it refers > only to license costs. He also conveniently omits > the fact that Fedora and > the RHEL "clones" (WBEL and CentOS) are free. > > God bless! > ---------- > > Ng: Mulling migration to open source > By Wilson Ng > Wired Desktop > http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2005/04/14/bus/ng.mulling.migration.to.open.source.html > > SAVING ON LICENSES. I was talking to a top executive > of an international > computer services company. They now use a lot of > Microsoft products, but > he said they are considering some open source > products to save on > licenses. The following are some of the things we > talked about. > > But first, I must tell the readers two things. > First, I have been using > Microsoft products for the last 23 years, and our > company has been a > Microsoft partner for the last 10. I am also a > designated Microsoft Most > Valuable Professional, whose job is to educate > people on the uses of > computers, again, specifically, for Microsoft. > > Second, I idolize Bill Gates. I particularly like > the fact that he helped > shape the technology revolution as well as donated > over $30 billion to > charitable causes. > > This executive I was talking to said he likes > Microsoft products, and the > decision would purely be a financial decision. > > He also told me that if they wanted to migrate from > Microsoft to open > source, it would mean reinvestments in hardware, > rewriting some computer > software programs, massive reorientation and > migration of data, as well as > retraining of their people. They also expect some > confusion, downtime and > possible loss of data or productivity. They also > took into consideration > the employee man-hours needed to rewrite and deploy > programs and other > changes. > > Taking these into consideration, they came up with a > financial model > showing that they would end up losing money in the > first three years, > break even at around the fourth year, make money > (actually save money on > software licenses) starting on the fifth year, and > recoup the losses of > the first three to four years by the seventh year. > > I started to kid him that you dont invest in > something, especially > information technology (IT), that will give returns > only after eight > years, especially if your current system seems to be > running fine. > > It is not as if you dont have a choice, I told him. > After all, when > you change your technology infrastructure, it is > extremely risky and also > entails a lot of work with precious IT people that > could have been used to > do something else. > > Moreover, in eight years, the technology landscape > will have changed > massively. I asked him how he did his computations. > After five or six > years, were they expecting the current open source > software to still be > free? And were they expecting Microsoft to charge > the same prices as > before? > > He admitted those were the assumptions, so I warned > him that these might > be too optimistic. Every enterprise is obligated to > maximize shareholder > return, so companies cannot be always giving things > away for free. > > Listing in Ebay was almost free before. When they > got a good market share, > they started to charge. Texting using cell phones > was free before. Now > telcos are charging. > > Red Hat Linux is hardly free nowadays. It is listed > in the stock exchange > and valued at over $2 billion. > > With sales of only over $100 million and net income > of slightly over $10 > million, why would a company be valued over $2 > billion? Obviously, the > market expects them to enjoy a ten- to twentyfold > increase in revenues in > the next few years. To gain that kind of revenue, > you have to gain both > market share AND better prices. As a result, there > is scarcely anything > now from Red Hat that is considered cheap. > > There will be two scenarios that can happen after > five years. > > The first is that Microsoft keeps its market share > and remains expensive, > and open source will continue to have a small market > share and be free. > Then it may be worthwhile for a service firm to pay > extra to work with a > technology which 90 percent of its customers also > use. > > This makes everything easierless training, easier > interchange of files, > easier time getting the business etc. > > The second scenario is that Microsoft will have > lower market share and > open source will have higher market share. When that > happens, you cannot > expect open source firms not to start charging. In > both cases, I told him, > the financial model may not hold. > > Over the last six months, almost a million people > got a Sun Cellular phone > because they could make unlimited calls for P250. > They justified the cost > of another cell phone with the savings they would > get. They assumed that > Sun would continue at P250 per month and the other > providers would > continue the same pricing. > > But as Sun gained market share, it increased its > price to P350, while > we now have responses from both Globe and Smart. > > > --[Manny > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Member: Philippine League for Democratic > Telecommunications > Alternative Information and Opinion: > www.phnix.net > PGP Key ID 3E7F7C68 from keyserver > pgp.mit.edu > --[Open Minds > Philippines]--------------------[openminds.linux.org.ph]-- > -- > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) > Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph > Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph > . > To leave, go to > http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug > . > Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go > to > http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie > ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
