Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................41. What's Free/Libre/Open Source Software?............................................................................................5FLOSS as a licensing model.............................................................................................................6FLOSS as a development model.......................................................................................................92. Ten myths about free/libre open source software.................................................................................13Myth #1: It's a Linux-vs-Windows thing........................................................................................13Myth #2: FLOSS is not reliable or supported.................................................................................14Myth #3: Big companies don't use FLOSS....................................................................................16Myth #4: FLOSS is hostile to intellectual property........................................................................17Myth #5: FLOSS is all about licenses............................................................................................18Myth #6: If I give away my software to the FLOSS community, thousands of developers willsuddenly start working for me for nothing.....................................................................................18Myth #7: FLOSS only matters to programmers, since most users never look under the hoodanyway............................................................................................................................................19Myth #8: There is no money to be made on FLOSS......................................................................19Myth #9: The FLOSS movement isn't sustainable, since people will stop developing free softwareonce they see others making lots of money from their efforts.......................................................21Myth #10: FLOSS is playing catch-up to Microsoft and the commercial world...........................213. Basic FLOSS adoption models............................................................................................................24The FLOSS adoption ladder...........................................................................................................254. Finding and selecting software............................................................................................................285. Best practices for FLOSS adoption......................................................................................................35Management guidelines..................................................................................................................35Be sure of management commitment to the transition ..................................................................36Prepare a clear overview of what is expected from the migration or adoption, includingmeasurable benchmarks..................................................................................................................36Make sure that the timetable is realistic.........................................................................................37Review the current software/IT procurement and development procedure ...................................37Seek out advice or search for information on similar transitions...................................................37Avoid big switch transition, and favor incremental migrations..................................................38Assign at least a person to interacting with the OSS community or the OSS vendor, and try tofind online information sources......................................................................................................39Technical guidelines.......................................................................................................................39Understand the way OSS is developed...........................................................................................40Create a complete survey of software and hardware that will be affected by the migration, andwhat functionality the company is looking for ..............................................................................41Use the flexibility of OSS to create local adaptations....................................................................41There is much more software available than what is installed by default......................................42In selecting packages, always favor stability over functionality....................................................42Design the workflow support infrastructure to reduce the number of impedance mismatches..43Introduce a trouble ticket system....................................................................................................43Compile and update a detailed migration workbook .....................................................................43Social guidelines.............................................................................................................................43Provide background information on OSS.......................................................................................44page 2
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