In this article EC: ‘Open source almost always cheaper option’, about findings of a study done by the European Commission, Europe is really pushing for the long-term endorsement of open source solutions as opposed to proprietary ones. This is in the wake of Microsoft UK’s ad campaign called “Get the Facts” which persuades readers to choose Windows over Linux for server solutions. The article goes on to praise Open Office as a comparable substitute over proprietary office suites since it’s free and just as stable. The study also noted something fairly interesting:

But the report issued two notes of caution. Firstly, it said that short term costs would be higher for organizations migrating, even partially, to open source, largely because of the initial cost of training. Secondly it said some workers may feel undervalued if they are required to work with free software.

This has a bite of reality to it. It isn’t always cheap switching to something free, once the price of adjusting or training is factored in. I like that second point the most, because although it may go against logic and the bottom-line, I have witnessed this stigma first-hand. Despite these two initial hesitations, we’re going to see an increasing number of start-ups and big-business choose or incorporate open source solutions to surpass their long term goals.