A short introduction to benefits and issues about the use of Free/Libre and Open Source software in small and medium enterprises (published in the Tri-ICT project: www.tri-ict.eu).

3. Information systems: hardware and software

4. Information systems: Total Cost of Ownership

5. Software costs: closed vs. open software

6. Risks in using closed (commercial) software

7. FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software)

8. Migration strategies

9. Conclusions

11. Store management,

12. Orders and payments management,

14. Software (office automation suites, DBMSs, etc.)

17. Database Management Systems

19. Nevertheless the software component is a crucial one for a company (even for SMEs not related to the ICT marketplace).

21. Installation and integration of hardware and software,

22. Warranties and licenses

24. Electricity (for related equipment, cooling, backup power),

26. Future upgrade or scalability expenses,

27. Decommissioning From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_cost_of_ownership ):

33. new hardware and new operating systems may not be able to fully run very old software written for previous hardware. Besides losing money, there are other serious issues behind the adoption of closed software:

39. the freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this;

40. the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2);

43. LGPL (Lesser GPL)

44. Apache License

46. FSF classifies licenses w.r.t. GPL, in order to give users an idea of the freedom's level granted by each one.

48. FLOSS runs only under Linux.

49. FLOSS is difficult to install/use if you are not an experienced programmer.

50. FLOSS is not reliable and there is no support for users.

51. FLOSS is not used in big companies or in mission critical tasks.

52. FLOSS is non-innovative w.r.t. commercial software.

54. FLOSS runs on most popular operating systems (including Windows and Mac OS X).

55. FLOSS can be as easy/difficult as any other kind of software (being open or closed does not impact on the ease of use of software).

56. FLOSS is reliable (there are many excellent and dependable free programs used worldwide) and the support is freely provided by large communities through the Internet and the WWW.

57. FLOSS is used both in big companies and in mission critical tasks.

58. FLOSS, being not strictly tied to the marketplace and to “traditional business rules” is indeed more innovative w.r.t. commercial software.

60. OpenOffice ( http://www.openoffice.org/ ) has a worldwide estimated market share of more than 10%, according to http://ooo.baseanswers.com/ooo-market-share-ltr-logo.pdf

61. MySQL ( http://www.mysql.com/ ) is “the world's most popular open source database. With over 65,000 downloads per day”

63. Firefox (it substitutes Internet Explorer, providing many security enhancements)

64. Thunderbird (an excellent e-mailing program)

65. PDFCreator (an alternative to Adobe Acrobat)

67. This means a lot of hundreds of € saved per computer .

69. try to get your employees actively involved in the process,

71. state in a clear way the software requirements,

72. test several alternatives,

75. Free updates

76. Bugs and security problems are solved quickly without extra fees

77. Possibility to modify and adapt the software to your needs

79. Old data stored in legacy formats have to be converted to open standards, in order to be used

80. In case of problems, you may have to spend some time searching for a solution in the forums, online communities etc.

83. ... are less exposed to net threats (viruses, malicious software, phishing etc.),

85. FLOSS allows entrepreneurs to do that.

87. Open Source Initiative ( http://www.opensource.org/ )

88. FVG Regional Centre for Open Source Software

89. ( http://www.cross.regione.fvg.it/ )

90. Open Source as Alternative ( http://www.osalt.com/ )

91. Linux O.S. ( http://www.linux.org/ )