Selective snip of argument in favour of FLOSS:
>Open Source Software and Linux - avoiding a lawsuit
>by Alan A Hodson
>
>In the not too distant future, when taxpayer groups decide to hold 
>their school districts and Board of Trustees accountable for the 
>senseless spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars in computer 
>technology purchases, especially software, there will be court 
>sessions where the Prosecutor will be grilling the district's Legal 
>Counsel with questions similar to these:
>
>P: Was the district aware of the existence of Open Source 
>applications that involve no cost and no licensing fees to install 
>in Mac and PC laptops?
>LC: Yes, I am aware of at least one department that after purchasing
>laptops found that they had no money left for software, so they used
>StarOffice, an Open Source application that is equivalent to 
>Microsoft's Office...
>P: Are you saying that the district knows that there are software 
>products that require no licensing, can be given to teachers and 
>students to use, and still insist on paying hundreds of dollars per 
>computer to provide basic functionality to desktops and laptops?
>LC: I am told that "the real world" uses Microsoft, so the district 
>buys the product the child is likely to see in the workplace when 
>they graduate.
>P: Please indulge me - what kind of car did you, madam, learn to drive
on?
>LC: It was a 64 Ford truck with standard transmission...
>P: Did you learn to drive 64 Fords only, or were the skills learned 
>transferable to any car, anywhere, at anytime?
>LC: You saw me parallel park this morning, what do you think?
>P: I frankly was impressed... very precise maneuvering. The point 
>is, regardless of how you learn a skill, if you learn it well, you 
>will be able to use it appropriately in the future, don't you agree?
>LC: It seems reasonable to accept that statement.
>P: So, if the skill of learning word processing, spreadsheet use and
>presentation software use is learned correctly, say using software 
>that loads and saves in the "real world" formats, as Open Source 
>software allows, then there is no need to spend all that money for 
>proprietary products, is there?

Ammo for use when I make my next pitch for switch to FLOSS.
-- 
Sudev Barar
Learning Linux


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