Hi,

My impression is that Freedom is a policy issue not a technical issue.

For this reason it is best presented before the invitation to tender is drawn up. The aim is to make the IT purchaser look for solutions that do not infringe his/her/its freedom. This will generally mean lobbying/advertising to the Board of directors of a company.

At bidding time all questions are in the context of the invitation to tender. If freedom is not already a requirement at this stage, it is unlikely to be a selling point. This is because the buyer has already decided what he wants.

If the sales process is less formal, then political issues must be decided before discussion of technical/design issues.

Nick Hockings ..................................................... Markus: Hello Georg,

While I do not deny most of your other statements, I'd like to add a comment to this one.

Georg Jakob writes:

If you talk about freedom in a sales presentation, you'll be laughed out of business quicker than you can say "GNU".

I do not think so. Freedom per se is not a bad thing even in bussines, else 'they' wouldn't insist on free trade so much... .............................

Nick Hockings nick@freenetafrica.org, s96121272@op.up.ac.za, s96121272@tuks.co.za,