Re: [Fsfe-uk] Proof of how scared senseless higher ed is of MS

[ian]

On Sat, 2003-07-26 at 10:35, Alex Hudson wrote:

> I think Ralph is just saying that the best form of advocacy is that
> which doesn't denigrate the competition. In fact, often the best tactic
> is to almost weaken your argument selectively wrt who you are talking
> to: if you are talking to a purchasing manager, telling them what bad
> value for money they are getting is not a good idea. The correct
> argument to use is who they could _improve_ their value for money ;)
> It's a spin thing, I guess, but basically amounts to being positive, not
> negative - people tend to be defensive about the spending that they have
> made, for example.

This is a very sound point. I deal with schools and many of them make
mistakes. People do not like these being pointed out hence the
difficulties with OFSTED etc. I sometimes have to bite my lip with
customers but I have a go at suppliers. Why? Because I am the customer
of the supplier who needs me to buy from him. I want my customer to buy
from me and to do that they must think I'm an OK chap. In a sense we are
all in sales because we are selling an idea and we lose the sale as soon
as the target is switched off - for whatever reason - its not their
fault, its ours for adopting the wrong tactics. 

> I'm really more concerned with the Microsoft area of the market. The
> Fords and Vauxhalls rather than the Beemers of this world. I think it's
> ready very possible to replace large amounts of desktop infrastructure
> with Free Software, including the operating system. One of the main
> problems we face at the moment is not that the software isn't capable,
> but that there isn't established experience rolling this software out,
> there isn't established best practice, there isn't established support
> and people don't feel comfortable with it. There is a lot of scope here
> to make big, positive changes, and I would be quite happy to leave the
> battle over niche proprietary software for another day: the key one is
> clearly the mass market.

Correct, which is why we currently concentrate on integrating FLOSS with
existing Windows platforms. Its a necessary step on the ladder. If we
can get more and more desktops out there that are not Windows it raises
the profile and eventually the Beemers will move specialist products to
our platform, that will kill off the need for the current integration so
Windows can wither. The final step will be to reduce the number of
specialist apps that don't have free software alternatives. Rome wasn't
built in a day and this is going to take several years, maybe a decade
or two who knows. But we have to be pragmatic given the situation we are
in. If I have to install a 100 client XP network in a school that was
going to be done anyway but I manage to persuade them to try out a 20
station FLOSS network alongside, I still treat that as a win for FLOSS.
We have to consider what is going in now that wouldn't have rather than
saying its all or nothing - in most cases that will end up with nothing.

Let's try and make friends, not enemies.
-- 
ian <address@hidden>