Choosing Linux now that the economy is down

I am living in a developing country and because of that I’ve always felt the high cost of software licenses, not just for operating systems. But for every piece of licensed software. Even if we’d like to buy proprietary software, it’s not possible all the time. We’d have to prioritize where our funds would go in order to maximize them.

Daniweb has a blog post on why you should choose Linux during these times. I can’t help but agree with most of the points there.

If you’re in a company that hasn’t used free and open source software yet, you might be questioning the need for it. Maybe you’re worried about the security and other issues like how reliable the software is. You might be thinking that it’s not worth your time to check out open source software when it probably could help you save your company from difficulties.

For one thing, open source software could open up opportunities for people to learn in your company. If there are changes you would like, there are configurations that they themselves could learn how to do. Also, it is possibly cheaper to do so because it will be done in-house. And if you are not a technology company, it doesn’t stop your IT department from learning something new, something different that could be useful for all of you.

There are a lot of open source software out there that are constantly being improved. OpenOffice.org might not be the fastest open source office suite but you could use it for managing spreadsheets and creating your presentations when you have client meetings, etc. There are also accounting software which are open source.

If you are already using Windows in your office but your new machines need operating systems, you could take a look at Linux and choose tools that would make it possible for your employees to work with similar tools. Admittedly, those who will get the new machines will have a learning curve to hurdle but it’s not all bad if you prepare them for it properly. I’ve seen it with my own eyes so I really think it’s possible.