On Fri, 2005-07-08 at 13:03 -0400, Daniel Carrera wrote: > > So they certainly realize that it's *possible* but they can't imagine > why. And to be fair, I have a hard time figuring it out too. I can tell > you why *I* volunteer. But it's harder to explain (say) a copmany would > contribute.
I run a company and we contribute because the business plan works. We don't have to be a simple selling agent for MS in such fierce competition that the only company making any money is MS. The margins on selling MS products are miniscule so if we take the MS product out of the equation and that frees the client up to buy other things from us, particularly services, we make more money. I suspect that if IBM added together the costs of the MS licenses it sells and eradicated that from their services they would make more money than the margins they get on selling those licenses. Of course its more complicated in a period of transition, but there is certainly commercial sense in getting rid of commodity license costs if you are a reseller. > One of the things I love about INGOTs is that it tries to fix the *root* > for the problem, by teaching kids about open standards, compatibility, > etc from an early age. > > I had a lot of trouble explaining open standards to my mom until I > mentioned ISO. And suddenly it all made perfect sense to her. Because > ISO is a standards body that she knows, she grew up with and knows what > it does. As an engineer, she dealt with ISO standards all the time. So > when I tell her that OpenDocument will be an ISO standard, it means > something big to her. Yes matching the message to the audience is important. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMSL --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
