[ Thanks to Wol for this
link. ]
The leading IT organizations in the United Kingdom are banding
together to fight monopolistic software companies — including a
large one from Redmond — by creating their own metrics for
measuring the worth of software and by encouraging alternatives,
including open-source software:
Later this month Tif [The Infrastructure Forum] will launch its
member benchmarking scheme, which will enable users to get together
and compare business IT metrics in a way that is defined by the
users rather than by consultants or software suppliers.”“The move is small but may prove significant. It could be the
beginning of a movement which sees corporate IT users reclaim
territory lost to software houses, which they increasingly perceive
as imposing unrealistic upgrade cycles and disadvantageous licence
arrangements on business….”“[Tif director David] Roberts suggests sidestepping the problem
by using open source to escape overbearing software suppliers.
‘Collectively, our users want alternatives. Some suppliers are in
danger of finding that alternatives will be created,’ he
warned.”
Complete Story
Direct link to Tif Web site