Switching From Microsoft Office To LibreOffice Saves Toulouse 1 Million Euros 296
jrepin sends this EU report:
The French city of Toulouse saved 1 million euro by migrating all its desktops from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. This project was rooted in a global digital policy which positions free software as a driver of local economic development and employment. Former IT policy-maker Erwane Monthubert said, "Software licenses for productivity suites cost Toulouse 1.8 million euro every three years. Migration cost us about 800,000 euro, due partly to some developments. One million euro has actually been saved in the first three years. It is a compelling proof in the actual context of local public finance. ... France has a high value in free software at the international level. Every decision-maker should know this."
As We Speak (Score:5, Insightful)
As we speak, Microsoft is instructing its European "business partners" to give a certain French city a shitload of really cheap Office licenses.
And... (Score:2, Insightful)
And how much time was lost from (1) employees needing to learn a new system, (2) reintegrating email onto a new client platform, and (3) finding a new way to conduct patching. (Microsoft, for all their deficiencies, is better than its competitors at keeping patches up-to-date. I'm looking at you, Apple.)
I'm not saying that the move may not be correct in terms of dollars and sense, but please answer these questions before blowing sunshine up my ass.
Re:sure, works for France (Score:5, Insightful)
If I could get a job in France, I think I'd move. I'd have more vacation time and I can drink wine at lunch.
It's TCO, not licenses only (Score:0, Insightful)
Sure you saved on paying NO licenses, but if none old stuff is compatible (formulas, formats), or you're functionality is limited (macros, embeds), or the feature plain sucks (track changes in Office > Libre), then how much more work are your employees doing? Likely more and you'll end up in a zero sum game.
Forgot, we're talking about France. Workers need something to do.
Re:Put some of the money back in... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, FOSS is about freedom, not being free of charge.
The Free Software movement was started when Richard Stallman got annoyed because he couldn't make his own modifications to a printer driver.
Re:sure, works for France (Score:5, Insightful)
Also the "market wage" (or "market total compensation package") is highly dependent on the laws regulating it. If every single company in the US was paying you a pittance, with some paying less or more of a pittance, you would technically be "forced" to work for close to nothing because you won't have the choice to do otherwise. That's exactly what's happening with the minimum wage and people with no education. They can't work for themselves because they lack that capacity, and are stuck accepting $7/h because that's the only thing they can have (that, or crime, I guess). It would take extraordinary courage to pay your employees more than "you have to", even if sometimes that's the right thing to do for the company and the country (notice how Seattle isn't dying off right now, and how Ford helped bring a middle-class to America).
$1000 if you can get Word to read Word documents (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll give you a thousand dollars if you can get a current copy of MS Word to read old MS Word documents, like OpenOffice can. Since Microsoft can't pull that off, I'm guessing you won't either. I suppose you could shellExecute(OpenOffice.exe) from a Word macro. :)
So yeah, you COULD throw out all your company's documents in order to avoid having two "power users" of Word learn different menu locations for a few things. That would make sense, if you had Balmer's dick in your mouth.
Re:As We Speak (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we'll see more and more international organizations/companies migrating from US company products.
The problem is not using US products, the problem is having to use the expensive MS Office suite specifically.