FOSS Solutions - KCLUG

7 Oct 2007


      Obviously, this could start (and has started) plenty of religious flame
wars over the years. This is not my intention. I am wondering what
points I can use, specifically, as arguments to make a case for FOSS,
specifically Linux, in a business setting. If I were hired as the IT
director of a small company, and was asked to build an IT Director of a
small company, my inclination would be to begin building with Linux and
FOSS, but when my boss came to me and asked me why I chose those
technologies, honestly I would have very few concrete reasons.  Here is
what I have so far:
1. I agree with the philosophy behind FOSS
     2. There are a plethora of plug-ins developed to help extend our
        infrastructure for our current (and future) needs
     3. If we find that a piece of software we downloaded (or purchased)
        is broken, or doesn't do what we need it to do, we have the
        source code and (hopefully) the resources to fix/change it.
     4. Not only are there several (competing) options for paid support,
        there are a ton of free message boards, mailing lists and IRC
        channels to get assistance from, making our virtual knowledge
        bank HUGE
     5. Total cost of ownership is going to be a fraction of that of
        closed source products.
     6. When needed, we can find closed source software to do what we
        need when we can't find a FOSS solution
That's where I am at. I am a programmer and know only the basics of
networking, so the networking possibilities within FOSS elude me. Of
course, it's always most important  to use the most appropriate tool for
the job, but I would give preference to FOSS tools over proprietary
tools. Again, my intention is not to start arguments, only to pull
together reasons why FOSS is a credible business alternative to
proprietary software solutions.