Comment Re:Perspective: what is $300 worth? (Score 1) 635
The cost aspect that I don't usually see is the support issue. I have recommended a free/OSS option, and been told to use a commercial app because if they need support, they want to be able to call someone. Look at how people are making money off of Linux. Not in selling Linux, but in selling the support. Until there are a lot more people out there who know how to support and are selling this support, closed source will still win.
Another aspect is finger pointing. I, as a business owner, don't want to spend a lot of money. Less money I spend, more money I get to take home, right? But if I buy this M$ OS, browser, office suite, and CRM application, and they don't work right, I am not going to be told 'oh, we don't support that, you need to talk to their vendor'
And since I am usually calling support when I am down/losing money, it makes more sense to spend the money up front. Same reason we buy insurance.
Now, this doesn't apply to everyone, but the general business owner it certainly does. A buddy of mine does support for the small business market, and he is still supporting a lot of Win9x/NT PCs. They will upgrade when they need to. Office 97? Still works fine for me. Why do I need to use those new features? And they will do so until they can no longer use the PC. So, they are not going out and replacing PCs every couple years just to get the latest thing. In fact, the company I am working for now still has some old Compaq Deskpro 2000 (P200 CPU) machines running Win98 and Office 97. Granted, I get rid of them as soon as I can, but they don't see a reason to remove them unless they break.
Another aspect is finger pointing. I, as a business owner, don't want to spend a lot of money. Less money I spend, more money I get to take home, right? But if I buy this M$ OS, browser, office suite, and CRM application, and they don't work right, I am not going to be told 'oh, we don't support that, you need to talk to their vendor'
And since I am usually calling support when I am down/losing money, it makes more sense to spend the money up front. Same reason we buy insurance.
Now, this doesn't apply to everyone, but the general business owner it certainly does. A buddy of mine does support for the small business market, and he is still supporting a lot of Win9x/NT PCs. They will upgrade when they need to. Office 97? Still works fine for me. Why do I need to use those new features? And they will do so until they can no longer use the PC. So, they are not going out and replacing PCs every couple years just to get the latest thing. In fact, the company I am working for now still has some old Compaq Deskpro 2000 (P200 CPU) machines running Win98 and Office 97. Granted, I get rid of them as soon as I can, but they don't see a reason to remove them unless they break.
