Re: [Fsfe-uk] TCO and environmental argument for FLOSS

[Brian Gough]

Ian Lynch writes:
 > It will certainly reduce TCO because there will be no need for 3 yearly
 > refresh cycles - this machine is a 1 gig Athlon and I can't see any
 > advantage in upgrading it in the foreseeable future. Also its
 > environmentally much better to keep hardware for longer and most
 > countries have environmental targets.

I've been looking at the environmental aspect recently.  There is
definitely some mileage there, but in terms of actual sales, I think
it comes down to one of the major players quantifying the advantages
of free software with some studies, and maybe getting it into one of
the environmental standards, like TCO99.

In addition to the environmental aspect, there is also an
ethical/social-accountability side -- the argument there being that
purchasing of free software (and patent-free) products supports the
development of technology available to all, as opposed to perpetuating
the "coercive exclusion" of proprietary software.  There are standards
for labour-rights like SA8000, but I haven't seen anything that covers
"information" as such.  

-- 
Brian Gough

Network Theory Ltd,
Publishing Free Software Manuals --- http://www.network-theory.co.uk/