John

I believe the ratio of development spend vs. marketing spend for a company like Microshaft is actually nearer 10% vs 90%… I know I’ve read that somewhere before. And if someone was bothered it could probably be calculated from their financial reports etc… But anyway that’s a good point.

Thanks

So, working back up the supply chain, what is the appeal of FLOSS to the FLS? Free-of-cost licensing is important. Typically, the client will have a budget limit for their new system. Every penny the FLS has to pay out for licences is a penny to spend elsewhere – e.g. on client training – or indeed a penny less profit for the FLS. So free-of-licence cost FLOSS hits the sweet spot.

FLOSS licences are also very attractive to the client. They can grow their business without having to pay a ‘headcount tax’ to a software vendor every time they take on a new employee. With increasingly aggressive software audits from an under-threat commercial software sector, having a ‘we only use FLOSS on these premises’ sticker on the front door can save a lot of hassle.

For a technically qualified FLS (and many of them are), having access to the source code also means that any bugs found by the client / enhancements required can be delivered, without having to wait for a vendor release cycle two years’ hence. A good FLS will of course contribute these changes back to the FLOSS project

I could go on … FLOSS is a wonderfully attractive business proposition to SMEs. The only thing that prevents its uptake is ignorance, and misinformation funded by the huge profits of commercial software. Explain to people that for every UKP 100 they spend on Microsoft software, then Microsoft has already spent over UKP 20 of their money persuading them to buy the product. And that’s not unusual in the commercial software business.