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Newsforge has a commentory on this. Some interesting arguments are presented, but none of them new.
In my opinion, here are the key points that any one trying to promote open source should do:
- How cross platform are the solutions? Generally, Microsoft solutions are not cross platform, though .NET might change that in some distant future. You also need to ask how important is cross-platform technologies to you.
- If the vendor reserves the right to change the license, how are you going to handle it? This is where having a market choice really helps.
- How secure is the solution? Generally, open source products get more peer review; and you have a chance to inspect the code yourself.
- How stable is the solution? Dave Barry has a funny take on that!
- How possible it is to customize or tweak the solution? In my opinion, there is no such thing as perfect out of the box software. What you need is a frame work that does easy things easily and makes complex things possible.
Linux advocacy mini how-to is a great reference for anybody who wants to promore Linux or sensible solutions, but doesn’t have a college degree in marketing (bless your soul).