[wlug_org] [POL] Resellers understanding of 'free' licences.

[Jamie Baddeley]

On Sat, 2004-04-24 at 12:12, Ian Beardslee wrote:
> I was helping one of our now ex-staff work out what she needed for her new 
> one person business.  In the end she went for a new laptop running Windows 
> XP Pro (trust me, it was the best choice).
> 
> I suggested that rather than cough up the money for MSOffice, I'd burn her 
> a CD with the latest OpenOffice on it and install it for her.  She was 
> telling me that when she went off to buy the laptop the salesperson (The 
> Laptop Co) didn't seem to understand that there are no licence fees or 
> number of PC restrictions on OpenOffice and was 'scaring' her with the 
> idea that it was illegal.
> 
This is a side effect of lack of awareness/education on the part of the
sales weenie. If he realised that bundling OSS into hardware they sell
a) would increase margins or b) make pricing more competitive, then he
would be way more supportive. It would mean a) he would meet his targets
easier or b) the business would probably supply him a bigger expense
account. ;-)

> In spite of the discussion on Monday :-) should the wellylug do things (as 
> part of the installfest promotion) like promote things like OpenOffice to 
> resellers as valid alternates - or do you think we'll just run into brick 
> walls where people are just interested in the markup they get from pawning 
> MSOffice onto the great unwashed, not for the greater good of the end user 
> and society as a whole :-)

IMHO, education is the answer. Promotion gets them there, but in my
view, education is what they need. A presentation at a LUG meeting. An
invitation to those that need it. Feed their minds. Don't push. Inform.


> 
> 
(p.s like the [POL] concept.)