[ILUG] [Slightly OT] Eolach closes

[Niall O Broin]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2001 at 10:05:11AM +0000, David Golden wrote:

> Actually, I've started crawling back on bended knee to ex-employers, vaguely 
> hopeful that (a) they're still in business, (probably) (b) they're not 
> offended I resigned... (problem) and (c) they remember me as competent. 
> (hmm...)

Are you in a position to comment at all on Eolach's closure ? I'm not of
course looking for details, it's more that I'm curious as to whether or not
supporting open source software is a viable business proposition in Ireland.
Presumably Eolach's closure indicates that it is not, or in any event, they
couldn't make it so. 

We all know that open source software is widely adopted in Ireland, and many
of us earn (or earned :-( ) our bread because of this, but it seems to me
that this adoption is still very much driven by technical advocates in
companies of varying size, and is very rarely adopted in firms without an
advocate. I suppose in a way that's obvious - when a company is looking for
a system, they can only buy what is sold which will generally be an NT or
commercial Unix solution (do any of you know if IBM here is pushing Linux
solutions to its customers/prospects ?). Even if a slightly clueful person
within an organisation has heard of Linux, and thinks that it might be a
solution, who's going to sell it to him ? A more clueful person of course
realises that he doesn't need anybody to sell it to him but we've already
covered those people.

I've only been involved in one installation where a customer decided to use
Linux in a largely Microsoft environment. It was as a mail server, but it
now appears that they're no longer using Linux in that role. I'm also
working with a Novell VAR who wants to use Linux as an internet gateway for
his customers. He's very interested in Linux but if he didn't know me he
wouldn't have really had anywhere to start - he doesn't have the time to
climb the learning curve himself.

So, if only savvy companies adopt open source software, can there be a place
for a company supporting it in Ireland ?



Just my few cents worth



Niall