[clug] Internode dumps FOSS for MS Exchange

[Alex Satrapa]

On 19/02/2010, at 10:01 , Steve Walsh wrote:

> Pick your fights to show people what opensource is, and then, slowly, people will want to look at more and more.

The important message for me from Steve's experience is to know your market.

These folks are starting to use Sharepoint? Figure out what sharepoint does, and find FOSS tools that do the same thing (only better).  These folks are using VSS?  Figure out what VSS does, and find FOSS tools that do the same thing (only better).

And I don't mean "spend an hour on Google", I mean "set up a VM, install the software, and write up some scenarios of how you'd use it in the environment that it will be used in."   Install it, learn how to use it the way you'd use it in "the real world".

Then when people want those features that X doesn't have but FOSS equivalent Y does, point them at the VM you happen to have conveniently available.  Show them how to use Y to do the thing that X can't do.  Chris's site will be useful for this, when shown to people who are aware of the limitations of their Windows install.

Alex