Re: Would The Reg please stop
> What's more expensive is the lost productivity because commercial standard software often is inferior to its FOSS counterparts
I think you have the words "inferior" and "superior" confused.
There are very good reasons why the GNU project has failed. Most of these revolve around the complete lack of commercial support offerings from professional vendors, lax testing prior to release and the near total lack of proper documentation (never mind translation). And that's before we get into the threats that the GPL poses to IP or the potential to be sued for F/OSS patent infringements.
If you want to run a successful commercial business, you need a professional partner who will have your back and ensure there are no potential legal threats. If you just want to run a toe-jam harvesting co-operative, then by all means use F/OSS.
It is a shame that India has taken this retrograde step, they used to have one of the most vibrant IT sectors. Now it will be hampered by a plethora of part-backed solutions and all using different standards.
> License costs are actually rather irrelevant.
Completely correct. The cost of training and support are the biggest problems and, as (for example) the Munich report clearly showed, these are massively greater with any F/OSS solutions for the reasons I have highlighted above.