And saved consumers $60 billion

Story: Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion?Total Replies: 8
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purplewizard

Apr 16, 2008
11:44 AM EDT
So one place loses and another gains as that theoretical $60 billion gets spent on other things. Just like the people who buy a cheaper brand of shoe cost the more expensive brands however much.
tuxchick

Apr 16, 2008
12:08 PM EDT
And it only took them five years to craft this little piece of FUD. Be sure to read the press release itself, it's a barrel of laughs:

Quoting: "The Standish Open Source Report is a thoughtful, objective and extremely useful tool for understanding the impact free software is having on the entire IT industry. Every CIO, CFO, and CEO of any corporation with large IT expenditures should read this report," said Wayne Sadin, CIO, Loomis USA, Houston, TX... . .. Non-subscribers may obtain copies directly from The Standish Group at: http://www.standishgroup.com/market_research/index.php for $1,000 per copy.


Now I'm not analyst, nor a pundit, nor a think tank, nor even an institution (remember the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution http://www.adti.net/gw-telecom.html ?), just a dumb old laypeople with a fondness for the obvious- in the same vein as purplewizard, the headline could just as easily be "Consumers and businesses save $60 billion, and have money to spend on useful things, instead of predatory overpriced software licenses, and they don't even throw in a tube of lube"
Scott_Ruecker

Apr 16, 2008
12:52 PM EDT
Well, there will be at least one article in my FUD section this week..
number6x

Apr 16, 2008
1:07 PM EDT
Wall Street please note:

Innovative corporations have saved over $60B by switching to Open Source!

Many corporations have woken up to the fact that Microsoft's huge profit margins aren't due to Microsoft products being so much better than competing products, but due instead to the fact that Microsoft simply charges a lot more than their products are actually worth!

Of course this huge markup in sales price by Microsoft has resulted in many of MS's customer's having to get by posting smaller than usual profits.

A new study by the Standish Group shows that beleaguered customers of expensive proprietary software have found a solution to this tax on their profitability. Thanks to the Free Enterprise and Open Market business models employed by the Free and Open software movements, many corporations are switching from costly proprietary software to Free and Open alternatives. The Standish Group estimates that American corporations have already saved over $60 Billion by moving away from over priced proprietary software packages.

Proprietary vendors have vowed to stop this movement from undermining their windfall profits. Their chief attack on Free Enterprise and Open Markets will be through the use of Government backed patent schemes and the threat of costly lawsuits. The fight between these socialist forces and Free Enterprise promises to be bloody. Many small companies who simply want to keep more of their own profits and avoid the taxation imposed on them by the government granted monopoly that software patents have created could end up being run out of business by litigious anti Open Market proprietary software vendors.

Wall street investors could cast the deciding vote in this battle. Investors can choose to back the Free Enterprise model by quickly pumping money into the innovative companies who choose to become more profitable by switching to Open Source. Investors can simultaneously dump the stock of any proprietary vendors who choose to take the low road and follow the litigious strategy of suing their own customers.

(See I could be a analyst)
rijelkentaurus

Apr 16, 2008
1:26 PM EDT
Nice spin.
GDStewart

Apr 16, 2008
2:23 PM EDT
number6x

I think you were one in a previous life. NICE !
gus3

Apr 16, 2008
8:09 PM EDT
@rk:

That isn't spin. It's stating plain facts.
number6x

Apr 17, 2008
5:33 AM EDT
I was dizzy after writing it!

(I've got Meniere's so who can tell?)
Scott_Ruecker

Apr 26, 2008
7:23 AM EDT
I am writing an editorial on this, should be out today.

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