MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-05-26 |
| FROM | dspira@att.net (Dave_att)
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Logo and motto
|
Ruben,
Ummm! lotsa good stuff here.
We may have to "borrow" some of these concepts for our Grant proposal. I will be reviewing this with the grant committee.
Dave
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ruben Safir
>
> Slaying The Giant
>
>
>
>
> One would think, after Microsoft has dodged the anti-trust bullet twice,
> and with the increasing pressure on businesses to license software
> through narrower and narrower agreements, that the competition to the
> Microsoft Office and general business computing would be almost
> non-existent. But despite all the hurdles being thrown at the
> competitive process, Free Software advocates are making suprising
> inroads on the business desktop PC, and might be in a position to
> finally blow open the market in a way the government has so far failed
> to do.
>
>
> Free Software, for those of the uninitiated, is a development model
> where programmers from around the world collaborate in developing
> software for the general public. The software is copyrighted and
> released to end users with a complete set of ownership rights which
> allows for those using the software to make alterations to the programs
> and allows for the distribution of the software to others. Free Software
> is unhindered by per seat licensing, or any other restrictions on the
> software use, accept that it restricts any of the users to
> redistristribute the software without the source code of the products
> and without granting similar rights to others.
>
>
> Free Software, until now, has been used extensively on the internet, and
> in fact is responsible for the birth of the interent itself. It's mail
> services, networking protocals, application servers, and web servers
> provide the foundation of the internet today, and did so at the birth of
> the internet. That means nearly every computer user has used Free
> Software extenssively. Everyone relies on this software for mission
> criticle uses every minute of every day.
>
>
> Much of the focus of Free Software has remained on the server side of
> the IT world. But increasingly, it's the Free Software desktop which
> should be getting the attention of your corporateexecutives and your IT
> managers. Not only is the Free Software desktop ready for primetime, but
> deployment of the free desktop in business, according to Free Software
> proponents and businesses, will dramatically decrease your tech support
> costs and positively effect your bottom line.
>
>
> The recent developments which make it so important for businesses
> toexplore this market is the development of the Open Office office
> suite, the KDE and GNOME desktops, and the avalanche of recent
> commercial grade applications which have been released in the last year
> for desktop productivity. In addition, New York City has a large number
> of home grown professionals who can support your businesses efforts and
> help you migrate off the more expensive desktop solutions. These
> products will finally get your business off of what has been described
> as the 'upgrade escalator', the business model designed to entangle the
> end users into purchasing constantly more expensive and larger software
> updates. These consultants, in typical Free Software style, have learned
> to collaberate together, and thereby give your business the kind of 24/7
> support which your business might not be used to receiving, but have
> always expected from the big players like Microsoft and Adobe.
>
>
> The local organization to spearhead this effort is called NYLXS, The New
> York GNU/Linux Scene. On their website, http://www.nylxs.com, you'll
> find a huge selection of activities this busy folks have undertaken.
> Among their efforts include the development of an educational program, a
> program to help schools save money in education with free software, a
> quarterly journal, several business expos, a weekly radio show, and
> support groups. For your business needs, the most important effort is
> what they have dubbed as 'The Free Software Chamber of Commerce'. What
> is the Free Software Chamber of Commerce? The organizations president,
> Ruben Safir, has described it as follows:
>
>
> 'The Free Software Chamber of Commerce is simply the best collection of
> computing professionals in the City, banded together to help businesses
> obtain the goals of reducing cost and increasing efficiency through the
> use of Free Software. Our group of consultants and technical people eat
> sleep and breath digital systems and are the most dedicated in the city
> at providing you, the client, with the services and products you need in
> this changing business economy. We provide everything for Telephony
> service, to secure remote access, to advanced desktop, audio-video
> andmundane web services. Most businesses haven't tapped even a quarter
> of the potential of their investment into IT services. We can not only
> unlock that other 75%, but we can do it under budget, and on time.'
>
>
> But how can free software compete with the big boys, Apple and
> Microsoft, on the desktop, where other businesses such as WordPerfect
> and Lotus have failed? The key is that Free Softwaredevelops faster than
> the big guys and produces better product. Look at the Open Office
> business suite as an example. It's hard to imagine that Open Office is
> barely a year old. And yet, it has nearly the complete functionality of
> Microsoft Office, without any of it's security issues. The Open Office
> Word Processor is simple to use, smartly designed and has full
> integration with databases, graphic programs and spread sheets. It is
> fast, efficient and easy to learn. It's presentation program revials
> Power Point, and it has a full complelent of graphics, charting ability,
> document revision control and groupware features. It was cleaved off of
> Sun Microsystems Star Office and now has a life of it's own.
>
>
> And it's free for the download. Say good-bye to all that time and money
> spent tracking license keys. Spend that time and money on something more
> important, like your business.
>
>
> Another example of productivity software for the modern Free Software
> Desktop include the K-Office Suite. It's a spin off of the KDE Desktop
> initiative originally produced by Troll Tech. While the KDE Desktop is
> technically superior, very windows like, and stable, it's crown jewel is
> K-Office. It is installed with nearly every KDE environment, and it also
> has Spread Sheets, Word Processors, Database tools, and more. Businesses
> that work with KDE miss nothing but restrictive licensing and high
> costs. Users find itintuitive and it never crashed.
>
>
> It's Free Software rival is the GNOME project. GNOME also produces a
> productivity suite which include GNUCASH, a quicken like program for
> book keeping and accounting, as well as it's break through mail
> andcollaboration client Evolution. Evolution provide your business with
> a beautify crafter user environement for calendaring, scheduling, mail,
> and more. What it doesn't have is the suseptability to email viruses. In
> fact, this is the common theam to Freew Software. Security is built in
> from the start.
>
>
> And so is networking. Unlike the primitive Microsoft desktop. Every
> application on the Free Software desktop is network ready. This is a
> huge advantage for the businessman on the go. Anywhere they login into
> the GNU/Linux system, they are able to run their desktop remotely. The
> miracle behind this is the X windowing system out of MIT. X windows
> allows users to run their programs from anywhere in the world. In
> combination with VPN encryption, you can quickly and securely run your
> office desktop from Mars.
>
>
> Marco Scouffier, another member of the NYLXS Free Software Chamber of
> Commerce explains it this way:
>
>
> 'When MIT create the X desktop, the goal was not to just create a means
> to display applications locally at the keyboard. That level of
> application was done nearly a decade earlier at Xerox Parc. Instead, the
> key to X was to design in as an applications server which could provide
> centralized security and computing power to lightermicro systems around
> the globe. The result of this is what we now call X. And through the
> security and capabilities of X, we can provide with free Software
> services which cost thousands, if not millions of dollars through Citrix
> on the close priopitary platform. It's even possible through Virtual
> Network Computing to run a windows desktop remotely through a standard
> DSL line.'
>
>
> Previous attempts to move Free Software into the mainstream has been
> hindered by three things. First, there is the problem of the Microsoft
> Monopoly. Second, there is the perception that Free Software is for
> computer geeks, and third is that there is limited support. It seems
> likely that two of three of these barriers have been breached.
>
>
> Joe Maffia, or the accounting firm, Rosenzweig and Maffia LLP
> (http://www.rm-cpa.com/), tells a story very differntly than one hears
> about the problems with ussage. Mr Maffia had hired Free Software
> consultants from NYLXS not long ago, and he has found them to be the
> most useful and cost effective IT professionals they've ever hired. In
> addition to developing the most stable backend network that they've ever
> had, Mr Maffia has found that the GNU/Linux desktop has great potential
> for his business and his clients. They have implemented the PHPGroupware
> Server on their intranet for calendaring and collaberation. And they are
> looking at other Free Software tools for their business, including SQL
> Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.com/), Open Office and several project
> management solutions. Mr Maffia swears by the Free Software he has
> integrated into his business.
>
>
> ´As accountants, we are always looking for the technology edge which
> will make us more competitive and which will allow us to provide a
> higher quality of service for our clients. Free Software, with the help
> of the Free Software Chamber of Commerce, gives us that edge. The VPN
> solution implemented by Brooklyn Linux Solutions has not only extended
> the productivity of our workers by providing fool proof remote access at
> minimal costs, but it is causing us to look at both customer marketing
> and customer services in a whole new light.
>
>
> We are now looking at the Internet as a means to give products and
> services in a fashion only the big companies had done before. For
> example, we are an official Oracle and Net Ledger provider, and we've
> had some success with this product. However, we now see that we might be
> able to provide even a higher level of service for clients right off our
> network through a single DSL connection. The solutions we implemented
> for our own office ussage might be a cornerstone for a whole group of
> potential clients, especially small businesses who find the cost of
> running and maintaining enterprise file servers and mail systems
> prohibitive. Because we are free from restrictive software licenses, the
> up side of integrating office management solutions for clients with our
> already world class accounting services is something with huge upside
> potential and very little risk to our current busines model.¡
>
>
> In addition, Mr Maffia raves about the different attitude Free Software
> providers bring to his organization. ´From the very start, things were
> very different when we interviewed Free Software professionals to hel us
> with our back end network. They immediately evaluated everything from
> the point of view of what would enable us in our goals of providing
> service for our clients They made our priorities their priorities.
> They've acted as partners in our enterprise, rather than victems of
> their enterprises. And we couldn't be happier¡.
>
>
> And accounts in the New York City area aren't the only ones who are
> benefiting. Lawyers find that not only does Open Office make asuperior
> Office Application, but that the built in encryption available on every
> Free Software Desktop lowers the exposure to neglignce law suites do to
> lost laptops and mail viruses. SuSe Linux (http://www.suse.com) comes
> with an option to encrypt local hard drives. This protects the Law Firm
> from having their computers stolen or lost, and finding the private
> information in the hands of others.
>
>
> Professional Graphic Artists also benefit from Free Software. Marco
> Scoffier raves about the the GIMP and Blender. The GIMP is the Raster
> Photo Editor free with almost every GNU/Linux distribution. Several
> times more powerful and Photoshop, and with built in Perl and SCHEME
> language support, Marco claims that there is almost nothing he can not
> do with the GIMP for online graphic support. Furthermore, the use for
> work in the print media is also impressive. Marco is also an advocate of
> BLENDER. Blender is a 3d graphics and animation program with python
> hooks for advanced gaming graphics and digital animation. He has given
> several ectures on it's use and interface across the tri-state area. His
> latest lecture was at the Long Island GNU/Linux Group in Farmingdale LI.
>
>
> Government is another area where Free Software is poised to benefit
> everyone. NYLXS, as an organization tried to get their software into
> Brooklyn Borough Hall, but ran against the kind ofresistance often seen
> when trying to market Free Software. On his election, Marky Markowitz,
> the Brooklyn Borough President, made a call for technical assistence
> because they had a large need for IT solutions, but no budget. NYLXS
> sent to Borough Hall three of it's best people, Kevin Millani, Jon Bober
> and Ruben Safir. Their experience was rough. As Mr Safir tells the
> story, ´First, when we first contacted Borough Hall, they told us there
> was no way that they would consider anything but a Microsoft solution.
> Later, I was able to get in an see Scott Cotton, who was in charge of
> this area for the Borough Presidents Office. However, when push came to
> shove, they just wouldn't do what was reasonable. These private
> companies came in and dropped propietory solutions on them, companies
> like Con-Ed and SIAC. And despite the fact that we were willing to come
> in, train them and install everything they needed, free of cause, it all
> seemed to boil down to fear, and the fact that one individual in the
> office was particularly found of an old version of a contact management
> system several years old, and not that good. This kind of closed
> mindedness is going to cost the City thousands of dollas over the near
> term future, and it won't provide them a single service that NYLXS and
> Free Software would provide them instead.¡
>
>
> Others in the Free Software community are pointing out other obvious
> examples where New York City Government can be cutting costs and
> enabling the governments. During this urgentyear, facing a huge budget
> deficiet, the Police Department is trying to figure out how it is going
> to invest in an IT infrastructure suited for the 21st century.
> Currently, the police department is still working with typewriters and
> paper forms. Free Software, with it's free word processors and
> enterprise ready databases and it's high security can save the city
> millions of dollars in computing costs, both on the installation side
> and on the maintemence side. Is New York City smart enough to leverage
> this natural resource with and protect its budget. The NYLXS Free
> Software institute is ready to find out.
>
>
> Peter Siegel, another member of the Free Software Chamber of Commerce is
> pursue this now. Mr Siegel is very clear about the advantages which Free
> Software will bring the NYPD. Currently they are working with
> Typewriters. The manpower alone, by using moderns computing systems is
> obvious and we can substantially save the city money in these desperate
> times even with Microsoft Office. But iwith Free Software, we can
> improve on the costs to the city by millions moree. First, we can run
> these systems on inexpense or old hardware which is being discarded by
> every major company in the city. Secondly, they will never ever have to
> pay for a license free. Never on the current product, or future
> products. And finally, city employees will have complete discression in
> the future maintemence and development of these systems. This will make
> the cities empoyees more efficient as they customize the tools for their
> unique ussages. And after all, nothing is more unique than the City of
> New York¡.
>
>
> > Ruben
>
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