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Michael Champion <mc@xegesis.org> writes:
> On Jan 18, 2004, at 8:21 AM, Fredrik Lindgren wrote:
>
> > I wonder if there is a business case for setting up a company
> > reselling free software to get around sceptical management. I mean,
> > without changing or really supporting the actual software, just
> > charging for it. ;-).
Xalan specifically (what the OP mentioned) you can by for as high a
price as you like from just such a company. Name's IBM.
> I've had inquiries along these lines from the sales force of my
> employer (whose customers tend to be conservative, mainframe-centric
> shops). My newbie-to-the-mainframe-world response was something like
> "why would they want to buy something they can get for free?" The
> answer was basically that they want someone take responsibility for
> evaluating and testing code, who they can call when something breaks
> and be sure of an immediate response.
"Take responsibility" is a bit vague. Is your sales force looking to
sell service level agreements for third-part software -- more like
insurance underwrites, "we guarantee 99.9998 uptime, or we pay you the
agreed amount"? Or more like investment advice -- "the reviewers and
their employer have done their best but no warranty of fitness is
implied. past performance is not a guarantee of future returns"?
> Not to get too far off topic, but "free" software is only free if you
> have the people with the time and expertise to exploit it effectively
> for your organization. There are plenty of companies out there who
> find it cheaper to license software for $50K/year
Wouldn't it be just as true to say that /any/ software is useless if
you don't have the people with the time and expertise to exploit it
effectively for your organization? I haven't been a mainframe user for
a while, maybe the software got more self-explanatory and user
friendly :=) And bug-free.
Ari.
--
Elections only count as free and trials as fair if you can lose money
betting on the outcome.
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