Open-Source Software: Bad For Non-Profit Organizations?

[justmy2cents]

I stopped reading after the "lack of documentation" was mentioned. I've seen and know of a few projects (some fairly widespread) that have crap documentation, but I've found most of FOSS software to be very well documented, since the community (even non-coders) likes to help with that.

Before reading that, I assumed the author at least had an idea of what he was talking about, but that thought flew out the window. A shame that people will read this and think he's right in all points.

lol, i stopped after reading this
"Enter “free” software: on its surface, a simple, cost-effective solution. However, free software isn’t always free, and nonprofit executives often learn this the hard way: after incurring costs from implementation, consultants, ancillary features, support, and ongoing maintenance. These costs add up to more than a solution with an upfront cost but long-term savings."

even if you go with commercial software. if your work depends on it, you'd have to be major fool not to take same steps. not to mention, commercial solution IT doesn't come and install it for free.

whoever wrote this is being payed moron to spit nonsense

[Detructor]

if you need consultants to set up a CRM system you are doing something wrong.

If you don't have IT personel, you are doing something very wrong. Especially for non-profit organisations you need IT people to make sure your stuff is secure and save.

Also I'd like to know how many dollars Michael got for posting that crap self-ad.

[Guest]

It seems moronix FUDs once again. Did someone pay your for this bullshit?

[yogi_berra]

If you don't have IT personel, you are doing something very wrong. Especially for non-profit organisations you need IT people to make sure your stuff is secure and save.

Bullshit. When your organization's only internet presence is a weekly flier e-mailed to members, there is no need to hire any IT staff.

[Luke_Wolf]

Yeah.... This was pure and simply FUD without proposing a real fix and implying that you should buy their commercial product instead. Whoever wrote this was a complete and utter dumbass, and I hope you were paid for this because while it would be morally bankrupt to at least it would be kinda smart as opposed to being an accessory to stupid.

[nightmarex]

Bullshit. When your organization's only internet presence is a weekly flier e-mailed to members, there is no need to hire any IT staff.

My mother works for a NPO and they have soo many problems with Windows it isn't even a joke. I laugh and tell her that the company are lunatics for staying with Windows and paying an IT guy $500 a day! Now they could switch to Linux, have to retrain everybody since their acclimated and have almost non of those pesky Windows problems, just the normal unix-ish ones. Suppose they would still pay that IT flunky that knows nothing compared to me $500(or more) a day but at least no God damn Microsoft pockets get lined.

Seriously though, the average person compared to someone like, oh phoronix readers probably know 1/20 what we know in general computer areas, as far as scripts and language for programming 90% of those eyes glaze over, you add back in OS maintenance and you're look at 1%. I love Linux I hate Windows, Apple and others who think they have the right idea. The problem is MOST everyone is a fucking retard when it comes to the things we know and love. So, go with what's already well known, "check", follow the sheep, "check", give two turtle shits about Linux, free software, security and scalability, "wtf is that?"

[MrRtd]

My mother works for a NPO and they have soo many problems with Windows it isn't even a joke. I laugh and tell her that the company are lunatics for staying with Windows and paying an IT guy $500 a day! Now they could switch to Linux, have to retrain everybody since their acclimated and have almost non of those pesky Windows problems, just the normal unix-ish ones. Suppose they would still pay that IT flunky that knows nothing compared to me $500(or more) a day but at least no God damn Microsoft pockets get lined.

Seriously though, the average person compared to someone like, oh phoronix readers probably know 1/20 what we know in general computer areas, as far as scripts and language for programming 90% of those eyes glaze over, you add back in OS maintenance and you're look at 1%. I love Linux I hate Windows, Apple and others who think they have the right idea. The problem is MOST everyone is a fucking retard when it comes to the things we know and love. So, go with what's already well known, "check", follow the sheep, "check", give two turtle shits about Linux, free software, security and scalability, "wtf is that?"

The reason non-profit organizations (my experience is with small local non-profits) stay with Microsoft Windows & Office, and other proprietary software, is because they get huge discounts, or someone will purchase & donate software.

[tarceri]

Why would post this?

Why would Micheal post such biased one sided fud. As others have said I hope he was paid for this exposure.

Since Micheal chose to post such an unbalance article (likely only as click bait as he knew it would cause an outrage) I will be choosing not to renew my premium subscrition and making sure adblock is enabled in future.

[GreatEmerald]

Not true. Lots of popular open source projects are feature rich: LibreOffice, Firefox, Zimbra, Pidgin to name a few. Problems arise with specialised software, but this is not required for 95% of all non-profit organisations, and should always be considered from its features otherwise.

Even with specialised software, things are not bad and getting better all the time. 3D modelling was very specialised once, with software suites having cosmic prices. Now we have Blender. Another example is geographic information systems, something I'm working with fairly often. QGIS doesn't yet have all the little features that ArcGIS does, but the benefits far outweigh the minuscule loss of that functionality, because it's super fast, plugins are open and can be easily found and installed within the program, as well as maintained even across major versions, it works with the latest and most advanced open data containers etc. Some specialised FOSS software has become a standard, like using R for statistics and LaTeX for documents (plus both together in one).

[stevenc]

I stopped skimreading at this remarkable gem:

Consultants work on an hourly basis, often charging up to $150 per hour.

What does that literally mean?

Sometimes - maybe not so often - this could be more than $150/hr.
But much of the time - it will be up to $150/hr. But this doesn't rule out it could be closer to $1/hr or even $0/hr.

Have to love fluffy vague marketing speak. It would be much more powerful, concise and readable to just lie:

Consultants cost $150 per hour.

p.s. these kind of articles ought to be a regular feature on a Friday or Saturday evening to liven things up around here.