IDC (Russia) overestimated the TCO for FOSS, published incorrect report
September 9, 2010 9:15 pm fossIDC (well-known analytical company – or, to be exact, its Russian division) recently published the report analyzing the TCO for different approaches to IT infrastructures for schools. Namely, they look at proprietary solution vs FOSS-based solution. Unfortunately, that report turned to some kind of scandal – everyone, more or less familiar with the economics of FOSS, raised brows quite high on some figures.
Today, the major Russian Linux vendor reacted: CEO of Alt Linux, Alexey Smirnov published the open letter explaining why the report was wrong – and why it should be withdrawn. I think this is a good practice, to publish more or less official statements when someone tells lies about FOSS. We are all quite vocal at Slashdot, Linux.org.ru etc – but sometimes someone should say something loud and strong. I hope IDC has decency … at least to react somehow – if not to admit, immediately, they did rather poor job.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:42 am
I read the open letter and I’m not surprised by the IDC study results: a very common pratice in this “free?!?!” global economy.
Because of this:
> as by the end of the year 2010, all of the 55,000 secondary schools in the country must decide whether to migrate to free software or to purchase Microsoft products
Can I ask you to blog about the “end” of this story when you have the info?
I’m just curious.
Ciao,
Andrea