At the expense of GNU/Linux.

This article is based on a true story. The names have been changed to protect the individuals involved. It all occurred in a government department where an IT lady had a great idea about converting their computers to GNU/Linux. Let's call her Gillian. Gillian was assigned to research GNU/Linux and found out that it would meet all the needs her department required and could be easily used instead of Microsoft Windows. Moreover, this switch to open source software would save them a lot of money. Gillian made a nice proposition outlined in a paper that documented all the steps she and her IT coworkers needed to take for this transition to happen. A lot of people liked her idea and thought it was feasible. Gillian even managed to convince the higher-ups who thought it was a good idea as well. However, like in all bureaucracies large or small, she still needed to get approval from the management. Little did she know that the management never genuinely wanted to switch over. Instead, they took Gillian's research and did what they wanted to do from the beginning. They used it as a leverage to get the Microsoft representative to get them a much better deal. They said that they were going to switch over to GNU/Linux if Microsoft doesn't give them a discount. The Microsoft representative didn't want to lose this client and gave them a very nice deal comparing to what they were paying before, so they wouldn't switch their computers to open source software.

After Gillian saw what has happened with her idea she was furious. She realized that her boss never intended to switch to GNU/Linux and only played her idea to threaten Microsoft to get a discount. Her thorough research was used for the exact opposite than it was meant for originally. And she could not do anything about it.

A lot of companies are using GNU/Linux as a leverage to get discounts from software vendors. They don't actually care about Linux but use it as a tactic. It is sad that they are not seeing GNU/Linux as a real alternative that could save them money but only as a leverage for a gain from existing software vendors. What they do not realize is that if GNU/Linux was not a viable alternative, Microsoft would not feel threatened and would not offer them discounts. Most of these individuals do not even know what GNU/Linux is but they know that Microsoft and other software vendors listen when you mention switching over several hundred or even thousand computers to open source. Lots of shameless practices were committed in the name of GNU/Linux and this is just one of them. Hopefully in the future, companies will take GNU/Linux more seriously and realize that it is a very good operating system that can benefit their business needs and that even discounts from Microsoft vendors will not be enough to stop them from switching to open source.

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