Nilesh Chaudhari wrote:
That's the hardest part to convince SSU managers. They have a one-track
mind and only believe in economic freedom, not in FS ideologies. What they need is a cheap software meeting their needs and that is how we can start selling FS to them. They cannot or rather will not invest in hiring a software developer just for maintaining the software for them. The ideologies can come later on when the guys feel comfortable with FS which they will eventually.
Second thing, using pirated copies of Windows-based software is too tempting for them. They generally already have the setup done from a neighbourhood guy who has prior experience in 'installing' Windows, free of cost. The guy got his experience and they got their setup running.
Sometimes these guys have to work under very tight budgets, and yet deliver the world to their companies. It is unfair to pin the blame of using pirated software on them. Any manager would love to have a clear conscience and use software legally. Actually when the company fixes a very tight budget, it (the company/business) is giving the manager a strong cue to use pirated software.
Another point is whenever a company sets up operations it has the proper figures for obtaining facilities for conductin it's main business, however the IT/IS department does not get enough money for software acquisition. Why? "We can always get licensed software once we make enough money..."
Businesses try to appear attractive to investors (present & future) by showing how little investment they needed and how quickly they recovered that investment. Factoring the added costs of IT infrastructure would throw the spanner in the works, in a manner of speaking, for their prospects in attracting investment. This is the REAL reason in most cases of SSIs/propreitorships.
This is wrong thinking. Money should be allocated for setting up *legally* obtained IT infrastructure right at the outset, and should be factored in the start-up costs the way they are worked out for the rest of the business's activities.
So what will make them change their mind? A strong movement from vendors for combating software piracy? Yeah right, maybe in another 10 years. :P Commercial software vendors know that if they push too hard, a lot of potential clients will shift over to FS. That is why they give several chances to offenders. They say, "Start off buying a few licenses and in time cover your entire infrastructure". That way they atleast start getting some fees from the client instead of losing them completely to FS.
For now, I believe "whistle-blowing" (NASSCOM) is the only practical way to get businesses to switch to FS in the immediate to near future. You'd be surprised how they would flock to FS when the cost of commercial software starts to bite! ;)