[olug] Open Source Solution Marketing

[Sean Edwards]

I am the Computer Applications Adminstrator at
Meridian, a division of Applied Graphics Technologies
(AGT).  We have some Open Source software on Solaris
and Mac OS X.  We use also use Linux to as a platform
for many things:

* WebLogic - a commercial J2EE server (I would like to
use JBOSS instead)
* Apache - Web server
* SendMail/IMAP/POP3
* Nagios - Alerts and Notifications
* DNS
* CVS (We are Migrating from StarTeam to CVS)
* Scarab (We are Migrating from StarTeam to CVS)
* Jabber
* mySQL
* PHP
* PERL

Because of the requirements of Graphics related
industries, only about 30% of our workstations are
Windows; the other 70% are Macintosh.  Some of us are
running Open Source software on Mac OS X: Evolution,
Gaim, and Galeon are a some worth mentioning.

The biggest challenges are finding reasonable, stable,
well-supported and well-used replacements for
commercial software, and fitting the solutions into
our workflow and corporate culture.

Management put a freeze put on the purchase of
StarTeam licenses in December, and the concurrent
licenses not only caused contention with users trying
to access  data, but the StarTeam product had a
defect, which would not release the license when a
user logged out.  With the freeze on the purchase of
full licenses, we rolled out CVS.  It is quite easy to
roll out in this economic climate, because no
purchases are required.

Now, if we could just replace the desktop . . .

-=Sean Edwards=-
cybersean3000 at yahoo.com

--- neal rauhauser <neal at lists.rauhauser.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>   A few days ago I put out a call to this list to
> find out who was
> actually involved in deploying Open Source
> Solutions. I heard back from
> Matt Marsh @ Paktronix, Someone(?) at Vorteon, and
> Jay at RebootTheUser
> - but with no detail beyond the fact that they say
> they're involved.
> 
>   When OLUG was young we'd get a few people who knew
> what they were
> doing and an irregular flow of programmers and
> Windows admins wanting to
> grow their skills. I think OLUG has grown up to the
> point where there is
> enough of an admin population available in the metro
> area that its time
> for the next step - market penetration beyond the
> traditional geek with
> facial hair demographic.
> 
>   I'd like to hear from anyone interested in pumping
> up the market for
> Open Source Solutions in the Omaha area. My first
> thought, given the
> tough economic times, is that some sort of half day
> or full day seminar
> aimed at CFO/Controller level finance executives
> would be a good place
> to start. We'd want companies that are big enough to
> be worried about
> disgruntled employees putting the SBA after them,
> and I suppose we'd
> tolerate the bigger ones, but I don't see that
> market segment as a sweet
> spot for *nix consulting.
> 
>   We'd need presentations along the following lines:
> 
> 
>    Linux - its not just for web servers any more - a
> total cost of
> ownership reduction  for a fifty seat windows shop
> with one file/print
> server moving to Linux.
> 
>    OpenOffice - a good product, and a nice slice out
> of M$'s cash cow.
> Someone will need to make OpenOffice CDs for Windows
> and we'll make 'em
> available at $3/ea
> 
>   Software Business Alliance - some case studies on
> the true cost of
> audits and how they come about (disgruntled
> employees).
> 
>    How to hire a unix admin - the RHCE is a nice
> start in terms of an
> industry recognized cert but business people are
> concerned about the
> cost of staff replacement as part of business
> continuity - turn over
> does happen and no one wants to get stuck with a one
> man horse of a
> network.
> 
>   Windows server migration to Samba - I think there
> would be some
> technical staff that would turn up, or in many cases
> CFO == CIO at
> smaller organizations
> 
>   Netware server migration to Mars_NWE - is this
> even a good idea? Speak
> up if you've done it.
> 
>   GPL, BSD license, and Open Source economics -
> someone coherent has to
> explain that OS != cheesy public domain and that its
> going to continue
> to exist and improve.
> 
> 
> 
>   This list obviously needs some sharpening up and
> I'm not I repeat NOT
> organizing the whole damn thing myself - step up if
> you're interested.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> -- 
> mailto:neal at lists.rauhauser.net
> phone:402-301-9555
> "After all that I've been through, you're the only
> one who matters,
> you never left me in the dark here on my own" -
> Widespread Panic
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug


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