Re: question for candidates

[Guido Iodice <guido iodice gmail com>]

Il giorno gio, 10/06/2010 alle 13.30 +0200, Dodji Seketeli ha scritto:

> Do you have public pointers to some of these marketing researches? I
am
> not trying to tell you "show me the links or shut up". Rather, I think
> having those pointers at hand could be interesting for future
> references.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
>        Dodji
>

Thank you for the question.

This is an example of a research about FLOSS adoption in Europe:

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/analyst-idc/110915


                Companies did not cite low cost as their main reason for
                deploying open source, a factor usually considered one
                of the main reasons for open source's success. Rather,
                companies said open source's top benefit was the
                flexibility allowed by the open source licence. "The
                most important motivator was that they could deploy
                whenever they wanted, without having to go back to the
                vendor and negotiate over licences, without having to
                discuss it with the CFO or looking at the cost
                implications. They could just do it," 
                
                Another surprise was that many companies said the
                ability to customize open source software was important.
                IDC didn't suggest this as one of the standard
                multiple-choice answers. Instead, many companies added
                it in the "comments" section of the survey. Vendors of
                prepackaged, proprietary software routinely downplay the
                customizability of open source, arguing customers are
                not interested in extending software themselves. 


Another example is this:

http://opensource.sys-con.com/node/431543

                what's really driving the adoption of open source
                software is freedom.
                
                Almost half of all respondents interviewed in the
                Forrester study cited open standards, a lack of usage
                restrictions, and not being locked into a single
                software vendor as their primary reasons for looking at
                or adopting open source solutions. Lower initial
                purchase cost was cited as important by most
                interviewees, but just as important is the ability to
                customize these packages to specific business uses -
                especially in vertical markets. And although most noted
                that they won't really change the code, having that
                option is very valuable to them. Freedom is key.


It is true that in more recent survey, during recession, price factor
seems to override each other reason. This is obvious when money is less.
But factors as "easy customization", "flexibility", "vendor lock-in"
remain very important also during recession, often more important than
generic "better feature" that are variable in FLOSS (and in non-FLOSS).

........................

Personal addendum.

I often talk about "FLOSS", crossing over the dispute on naming, because
in my personal experience "freedom matters" for both practical and
ethical reasons, and I see these reasons strongly related, like two
faces of the same coin, so I don't feel a contrast.
As I wrote in previous e-mail, practical advantages like security are
often a side-effect of freedom to see, modify and propagate the code.
On the other hand, a good "advertisement" for freedom is to show how it
brings practical advantages. 

I.e., some times I modify software to help people to fit their needs.
Former Windows users are amazed about this, they did not imagine that
there is opportunity to take a program and force it to do what you want,
i.e. to modify a driver to support a new hardware or to modify an applet
to open Evolution instead GMail in the browser. This is inconceivable
for them. They know only how to "crack" proprietary software but because
it is illegal, they think it is something to hide.
They are surprised that to hack a free/libre/open source software is a
normal activity and then realize the importance of freedom.

So I hope GNOME people will help users and companies to understand about
the effects of freedom in their life and in their business.

Often users are aware of practical advantages of habeas corpus (i.e. to
be not in a prison ;) ), but they are not aware about practical
advantages of other kind of freedom and rights, the immaterial ones,
like privacy or software freedom.
Companies often stay for "free market" but they should understand that
freedom in business includes software freedom too.

Thank you.