Life after Microsoft - One firm's complete conversion to open source
Published: 22 Aug 2003 15:00 BST
Sterling Ball, a jovial, plain-talking businessman, is CEO of Ernie Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings endorsed by generations of artists ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to the dudes from Metallica.
But since jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has also gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software -- and still lived to tell the tale.
In 2000, the Business Software Alliance conducted a raid and subsequent audit at the San Luis Obispo, California-based company that turned up a few dozen unlicensed copies of programs. Ball settled for $65,000, plus $35,000 in legal fees. But by then, the BSA, a trade group that helps enforce copyrights and licensing provisions for major business software makers, had put the company on the evening news and featured it in regional ads warning other businesses to monitor their software licences.
Humiliated by the experience, Ball told his IT department he wanted Microsoft products out of his business within six months. "I said, 'I don't care if we have to buy 10,000 abacuses,'" recalled Ball, who recently addressed the LinuxWorld trade show. "We won't do business with someone who treats us poorly."
Ball's IT crew settled on a potpourri of open-source software -- Red Hat's version of Linux, the OpenOffice office suite, Mozilla's Web browser -- plus a few proprietary applications that couldn't be duplicated by open source. Ball, whose father, Ernie, founded the company, says the transition was a breeze, and since then he's been happy to extol the virtues of open-source software to anyone who asks. He spoke with CNET News.com about his experience.
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10 comments
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For the complete story go here:
http://news.com.co... Arthur B. -
I am making the transtion to the linux world as we... Travis *************
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This reads like a case of sour grapes after being... Anonymous
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I say well done!
Although Linux is a bit hard to m... nightcat
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If only it were that easy. Perhaps the guitar str... Kase
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Hey, Mr. Car Sales Guy who-doesn't-know-what-he-is... Sam
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A very interesting story. I suspect that they will... Si
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Doesn't sound like they got treated badly at all,... Anonymous
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Wonder who Anonymous works for? This is an appalli... Dan Hacker
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I'm basically a cross-platform kind-of-guy... I do... Richard Parkin
