- Open source benefits universities
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- You don't have to rely on a vendor for support and updates
- The Open Source Community if comprised of folks who both write and use software
- People write software to solve a problem, not make a profit. Time and resources are spent on functionality, not advertising and sales
- Support comes directly from the developers of the product.
- Puts the power of support and maintenance in the hands of local tech folks
- It's a little Scary
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- There are no guarantees with open source
- You have to trust your techies to be the end of line tech support
- They will probably need to be on call and willing to tether themselves (at least to some extent) to the office
- Should we use Open Source for everything? NO!
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- Open Source software, out of the box is just like any other piece of software, it can't (and probably isn't designed to) do everything.
- Pick the right tool for the problem.
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- Finding the right tool is more important than finding the “cheapest” one today.
- Sure Open Source Software doesn't cost any money but you do have to people willing and able to dig through code and fix the problem.
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- Having a team with the specific skills to manage, and manipulate Open Source Software is not always a given
- Do you have application developers or application support personnel?