[ale] top selling points for linux...? [anti-flame]

[Thompson Freeman]

Well, for starters, you might want to contact the people in Key Largo
(??) who have gone full Linux city wide. They may have more concrete cost
data with which you can work with, as well as staffing levels.

The big question I have at the moment is - how well can you document your
points? Your audience may not appreciate a nuts&bolts penny by penny
workup, but I suspect you should have such a workup available to you.

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Christopher Bergeron wrote:

> I'm not a salesman, but in an attempt to help my sales/marketing department
> understand why _my_ MIS dept. is better than a Windows shop.  Could you guys
> help me come up with a few that I might've missed.  Again, my target
> audience is a "technically inclined" sales group, but not "too technical".
> 
> ROI - with Linux we get more for our money in the long run.  We save on
> licensing fees and maintenance in general by bringing support "in-house".

Also - in the eternal struggle with trouble makes, it is vastly simpler to
update your Linux farm's software than Windows. Plus you can make some
structural changes which make it even easier to maintain by using
Xservers/terminals rather than full systems at some/all workstations.

> 
> Performance/Efficiency - Linux outperforms _most_ Windows equivalents in a
> production environment (ie, Samba vs. Native Windows file sharing, MySQL vs.
> SQL Server, etc).
> 
> Open archictecture - Linux is "open source" meaning it can be tailored/tuned
> to work "better" in any given situation.  With Microsoft software (the
> kernel particularly) you are locked in.  A good analogy is that it's like
> driving a car with the hood sealed shut.  Your skills are wasted if you're a
> mechanic (programmer/sys admin).

Again - examples? For both the above points.

> 
> 
> Does anyone know of any other good points or anlaogies that could make this
> stuff crystal clear for my audience?
> 

What are your marketing people marketing? In general that is. You already
know that you need to bias your presentation to address the interests and
concerns of your audiance.

Other points possible which may parrot other responses:

Relative security of Linux/Unix against virii. Most of the virii authors
are targeting MS anyway, and the Unix division of administrator and user
helps frustrate many of the others. This impacts ROI, and general
stability concerns. 

So hideously often I hear "Who do we sue when..." While you may not want
to present such a point, I'll bet you will need answeres for it at some
point.

Along with such a leagal idea - lisenses. While the procedures are
probably worked out - does anyone in business or private life _really_
want to give a third party access to their private data while proving that
there are no illegal copies of software running? This isn't theoretical
either - MS is determined to enforce its intellectual property
rights. Lawyers is expensive also. (Linux isn't going to call home to big
brother either - MS products? Who knows.)

I'm not sure how important this would be in a given environment, but the
open nature of the lisense should mean that you could burn a CD with the
general form of your setup for any employee for use at home, whether for
study, practice, or whatever. Since I like to see people empowered, this
is a plus for me. The milage may vary - as it were.

Isn't there a howto on this basic topic? In any event, I hope this helps

> TIA,
> CB
> 
> 
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-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net


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