FOSS Saves Corps Millions (if not billions)

Hi,

The FreeS/WAN project recently announced that it is shutting its doors. 
There is the OpenSWAN, KAME, and other solutions already there to 
provide transparent to the end user continuation.  So, the FOSS 
community has performed robustly and corporations will reap millions 
if not billions in savings.  (I am at a loss to put a dollar figure 
on it as I do not know what brand/type of calculator is used to 
generate the hyper-inflated figures that get tossed around.)

I can give a scenario.  A client with over 300 remote offices around 
the country is using a vpn network to tie communications together. Had 
a closed-source solution been used that dead-ended it would have cost 
a big pile of non-hyper-inflated money to implement a new solution.

In an area where the FOSS community has not done so well, specifically
back-up solutions, said client identified the need for a new solution.
They ended up buying a closed-source license for ~$30K.

Now what got me to thinking about all this was the README file in the 
reiserfsprogs tarball.  At the end is a pitch for work-for-hire.  I 
have not contacted Hans and do not know if he would be interested in 
this line of development.  I do think that if they are interested 
Namesys has the in-house skills to get such a project through the 
prototype stage so that it can grow legs and walk on its own.

The reason I choose Namesys as an example is that they have the 
demonstratable expertise in filesystems for making the sales pitch to 
the corp-clients to obtain the funding for initial development.
(There may be good reason not to use Namesys, I don't know.)

I mentioned the case where FOSS is saving corps $$$.  From where I sit 
it seems that so many corporations get so caught up in the "maximize 
shareholder value" that it reduces to the always cheat strategy from 
game theory.  Then to diminish the penalties for this stratey they 
lobby the govenment towards that end.  Whereas I am trying to make 
the case that by cooperating with a small group of others with the 
same need they can reduce their upfront costs and reap savings in the
long run.
-- 
I think, therefore, ken_i_m
Chief Gadgeteer, Elegant Innovations
Founder, Bozeman Linux Users Group
(406) 581-0495