Re: IBM investment in i - can open source software help sales?

Pat, it sounds like you're thinking about the open source of years ago.

I know there are many here who support the open source
software and it does have it's place, but when selling to a
small business, they want the whole ball of wax which
includes detailed support and all the manuals that go
with the software.

<snip>

I think that the support issue would be the big show stopper
for most.

All of the products that Aaron mentioned have commercial support available:
http://www.openbravo.com/services/by-service/support/
http://www.alfresco.com/services/
http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/services/support-services.html

> A small business would have very little tolerance for
> "bugs" and how to fix them in an open source situation.

Bull. Mature open source software is often less buggy than proprietary software. Not only that, but in many cases bug fixes are easier to come by. In the worst case scenario, you at least have the option to fix the bugs yourself.

As you alluded to, it's all about picking the right packages, which is exactly why the appliance approach that Aaron is talking about is a better idea than having the customer try to sort it out themselves.

Unfortunately, this approach probably suffers from the same problem as System i did. Most people hear the "free" in "free software", and immediately think about sticker price instead of TCO.