[wplug] COLLABORATION AS DISTRIBUTED CAPITALISM?

bgtrio at yahoo.com bgtrio at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 9 10:00:53 EDT 2003


What is needed is a free software reseller and guarantor.  Basically an 
organization that takes free software and offers some warranty protection 
and limited support.  As you probably know, GPL software offers no 
warranty but allows others to offer a warranty for the software.

It wouldn't really be that hard to offer the EXACT SAME warranty and 
support offered for Microsoft Windows out of the box and 
to advertise such, since they don't really offer very much.  If such an 
organization existed they could allay the fears of management types and 
provide them with the purchased product security blanket they so 
desperately crave.

This is a dream of mine but sadly I lack both the seed money and 
accountant friends to embark on such a venture, but perhaps someone 
reading this is better suited to the task.

Bryon

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, Teodorski, Chris wrote:

> I've had similar problems here.  Upper management has said "We will not consider ANY free solutions".  It doesn't seem to matter how good the product or how well it fits the niche it fills.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Ostroske [mailto:eksortso at linuxmail.org] 
> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 8:29 AM
> To: WPLUG Mailing List
> Subject: RE: [wplug] COLLABORATION AS DISTRIBUTED CAPITALISM?
> 
> On Mon, 2003-09-08 at 10:47, Vanco, Donald wrote:
> > 	What's really sad (from my perspective in my day-to-day job) is
> > trying to convince those in my company of this.  They have a real hard time
> > wrapping their heads around the concept that software developed in an open
> > and "free" environment can be really, really great stuff.  As stupid as it
> > sounds, I'd have an easier time passing some software solutions if they were
> > _not_ zero cost.
> 
> Wow, sounds like some hard-headed cases you've got to deal with!
> 
> But maybe, what you said might be the best way to sell the stuff. Have
> you had someone in your company balk at adopting OSS after telling them
> that the software's free, even after you've sold them on how good it is?
> Even if they knew that there was a (non-profit) foundation backing it
> that they could trust/blame?
> 
> > 	I spend 50-60% of my time as a "marketing puke" (albeit technical
> > marketing) - but I market open source ISVs....
> 
> Whoops, didn't mean to step on your toes, there. The "market droids" I
> had in mind are the types that make pi-in-the-sky claims to their
> clients, then ask you to write something to match their crazy ideas. May
> I assume that the claims you make to the ISVs are fairly sound,
> technically?
> 
> > Don
> 
> 

-- 
http://www.livejournal.com/~bryguypgh




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