[FOSS] How does one respond to this line of questioning?

[Seth Cohn]

A few comments:

md wrote:
> As a "Free Software Evangelist" I have often advised people that if they
> have a system that is working perfectly fine, paid up licenses, on
> hardware that is cost effective, then they are typically foolish to try
> and move that to FOSS, for that will be the "all pain and no gain port".

> On the other hand, if it is a new project and they do NOT consider FOSS
> (with the "consideration phase" based on reasonable costs) then they
> probably have not done their homework.  The irritating thing to me is
> that a lot of the companies represented in the "second question" do not
> consider doing this.

If you'll be available, and wish to talk about this exact point, the
Open Source/Open Data bill (was 2 bills, now 1 bill)
is now before the NH Senate (hearing date not yet scheduled), and that
is a perfect item to explain why the State needs to "do it's homework"

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0418.html

Anyone interested in contacting your Senator, let me know, I'll give
you more info.

> Along the same lines, if you already have a staff of .NET developers,
> why make them learn PHP and Drupal when they can just do something in
> SharePoint?

I would be sadly remiss, given the above perfect straight line, not to
point to the book:
Pro Drupal 7 for Windows Developers
written for exactly that audience (and others who wish to learn Drupal)

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/143023153X/ref=nosim/fuzzyandfurry-20

Disclaimer: I am the technical reviewer of the book, so I'm biased
cause I know it's good, since I made sure it was.
(And for fun, check out my bio page via amazon's look inside feature)

Seth