When and how can Free Software really save public money? (Linux Today)

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Posted: 18 Feb 2010 11:24 AM PST

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:When and how can Free Software really save public money?

[ Thanks to M. Fioretti for this link. ]

"First question: in my opinion, people saying that Free Software saves money overlooks the fact that those who use it on their job, for example a public employee, may need some training to use all its features. If you consider this, Free Software saves money only in the long run, doesn't it?
"Of course, in medium and big organizations, the costs of software licenses are only a small part of the total costs of using and maintaining that same software (even if, only in Italy, the total amount of software licensing costs in local and national PAs is hundreds millions of Euros every year), but let's look at the whole picture. If you only consider the cost of software licenses, it's easy: Free Software wins"

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