Guide for SMEs Flossmetrics Deliverable D By Carlo Daffara Connecta

Ten myths about FLOSS (1) It’s a Linux vs Windows thing –There are thousands of applications beyond operating systems –Number of FLOSS end user applications is continuously growing FLOSS is not reliable or supported –Not only volunteers –Paid programmers are not better –There can be support for FLOSS as well –FLOSS can be reliable (e.g. found to produce more functionality over time compared with CSS)

Ten myths about FLOSS (2) Big Companies do not use FLOSS –IBM, HP, Sun, Oracle, … support FLOSS –86% of 1000 Fortune companies use or test FLOSS –Same attitude by European companies FLOSS is hostile to intellectual property –GPL constraints aim to avoid usage of FLOSS without giving back anything –FLOSS is winning legal cases, in which it was accused for intellectual property violation (e.g. SCO in LINUX kernel)

Ten myths about FLOSS (3) FLOSS is all about licenses –It’s more to the picture than meets the eye FLOSS only matters to programmers, since most users never look under the hood anyway –Having the code allows for: Paying someone to enhance it Translations, documentation, examples, etc come along with FLOSS code Sometimes it is not that difficult to modify code statements

Ten myths about FLOSS (4) There is no money to be made on FLOSS (see MERIT report by Gosh et al. 2006) –FLOSS related services could reach 32% of all IT services by 2010 –FLOSS-related share of EU GDP could reach 4% by 2010 –FLOSS directly supports 29% of software that is developed in- house in EU (43% in USA) –FLOSS saves industry over 36% in software R&D investments –EU investment in FLOSS software today is 22 Bil. Euros (36 Bil. in USA) representing 20.5% of total software investment (20% in USA) –Gartner predicts that by % of software market will be FLOSS-based

Ten myths about FLOSS (5) FLOSS is playing catch-up to Microsoft and the commercial world –FLOSS fosters more creativity than CSS. FLOSS seems capable to provide more features over time than CSS

FLOSS adoption models Basic substitution / migration New deployment Selling services based on FLOSS (e.g. PROXIMA in Thessaloniki) Selling products that contain FLOSS as a significant component

The FLOSS adoption ladder Denial Use (e.g. Firefox) Contribute (code, translation, support, sponsoring, participation, etc.) Champion (significant part of company’s activities go to FLOSS) Collaborate and define (extend use of multiple FLOSS products, collaborate with clients, other companies etc)

Finding and selecting software Identify your requirements Search for packages matching requirements Select the appropriate package –Use forge or software announcement sites –Use evaluation sites (QSOS, Open BRR, etc) –

Your project You have been already assigned a software type in TEC site Prepare a short report on similar FLOSS products Choose one, the most interesting, out of them Evaluate it through QSOS site If this is not possible for any reason choose one TEC software type at random