[clue-talk] saving money with Linux

[Charles W Downing]

David L. Willson wrote:
> MS Windows $200
> MS Office   350
> (antivirus)  40
>
> Other applications as appropriate.  Most things are free (as in beer) on Linux and not free on Windows and other proprietary OSs.
>
> Next, Linux is competitive.  Due to the nature and spirit of the GPL and the community, what one Linux vendor has, they all gradually acquire, and in such a way that compatibility is not only possible, but encouraged.  With proprietary software, when a vendor makes something new, or even patents something new without making it, you're stuck with that vendor for that thing, for an extended time, and another company can't make a better, but compatible, one, because of the legal protection for the "intellectual property".  So, in general, Free software is a better value in features than proprietary software, even if the dollar cost is similar.
>
>   
Yeah, but two examples.  I recently spent $300 for an HP scanner, which 
I researched on HPLIP and was informed it worked perfectly.  Now, on 
Ubuntu 9.10 (Linux Mint 7), the scanner is completely dead in the 
water.  It works properly in Windows XP ( granted, with the proprietary 
HP software).  Second, one month ago, with Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04, I think) 
gscan2pdf worked as desired.  Now with, again, 9.10 it fails.  I need to 
scan paper to pdf for a commitment I have made to some special people.  
Fortunately, I am dual booting Linux Mint 5, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, so I can 
figure a work-around.  However, these glitches make me unhappy with 
Ubuntu.  All in not perfect in Linux-land, as much as I like free beer!
> David L. Willson
> Trainer, Engineer, Enthusiast
> MCT, MCSE, LPIC-1
> tel://720.333.LANS
>
> ----- "Louis Miller" <miller106c at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Grant,
>>
>>        You said in your introduction, in caps that Linux saves you
>> time 
>> and money, then the next few paragraphs are all about it saving you 
>> time. As if everyone knows how Linux saves people money. But, we
>> haven't 
>> really established how Linux saves the computer user money. How would
>> I 
>> tell a Windows user, in 500 words or less, how it would save them
>> money?
>>
>> Louis
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>>     
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>   

-- 
Chuck Downing
Highlands Ranch, Colorado USA