I think this is a very exciting development for the open source community. More and more applications are going web based, and I can see a future where the only application anyone will really need is a web browser. We already have Google docs, once that functionality improves just a little bit there's your office suite. Serve your ticket and lien database through a secure web connection or VPN, and you're good to go. Total software cost: 0.
Surely it must be cheaper to employ a couple of Linux techs than to keep bleeding money in license fees. Windows environments needs techs anyway, so most of the cost is already budgeted.
There will be some cost and security concerns, but it seems clear to me that over the long term open source is a better solution. This could even lead to government sponsored developers who are paid to improve open source projects, somewhere way down the line. Exciting stuff!
Surely it must be cheaper to employ a couple of Linux techs than to keep bleeding money in license fees. Windows environments needs techs anyway, so most of the cost is already budgeted.
There will be some cost and security concerns, but it seems clear to me that over the long term open source is a better solution. This could even lead to government sponsored developers who are paid to improve open source projects, somewhere way down the line. Exciting stuff!