Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Michael Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Mar 5, 2007, at 10:40 AM, zman wrote:

> On Mon, 5 Mar 2007, Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
> > We tried an open source wiki, and now swear by Confluence, from  
> > Atlassian:
> >
> > http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/
>
> $1200 for 25 users... $8k for unlimited
>
> A little steep price wise...

For an individual maybe, but not for a company, where the total cost  
of ownership is more important than the license cost. We use  
Atlassian's bug tracking software as well, and their software not  
only makes our entire company more productive, but in the years we've  
used it have never encountered a single bug.  We've filed some  
requests for new features, but never a bug.

For software that employees use everyday I'm much more interested in  
efficiency and capability than price.  For example, my company  
recently spent 6 months trying to switch to using an open source CRM  
system.   After dedicating an engineer half time for six months  
posting on the forums, fixing bugs, etc, we had to pull the plug and  
go with a commercial system that took two days to implement. Cost of  
the open source package: $25,000 in salary. Cost of the commercial  
system: $2,000.

________________________________________________________________________ 
_________
If you put up a large switch in a cave somewhere, with a sign on it  
saying "End-
of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH", the paint wouldn't even  
have time
to dry. -- Pratchett
        -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC