[plug] Fwd: Closure of the Open Source WA resource?

[Fred Janon]

To answer Stuart Midgley's questions, here is a copy of an email I sent
to the DOIR about a month ago describing what I was hoping to get from
the OSWA Centre. I was told that some organizations/companies were
already stepping forward to replace the OSWA. Hopefully it will happen
soon.

Briefly I would like to have a Linux facility where I can test
different  Linux distributions, Open Source Software in general and
send my clients  to get informed (reassured?) about Linux and Open
Source alternatives.

IBM has a (free) Linux lab in San Francisco where companies can go and
test their software on Linux.

Fred

--- Fred Janon <fjanon at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:44:25 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Fred Janon <fjanon at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Closure of the Open Source WA resource?
> To: Stephen.Grocott at doir.wa.gov.au
> CC: fjanon at yahoo.com
> 
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> My name is Fred Janon, I am an entrepreneur and moved recently from
> the
> Silicon Valley to Perth. I used to work for Apple Computers, Dell
> Enterprise Systems and Palm. I am starting a new business in Perth
> developing custom software applications for Small and Medium
> Businesses. The applications are all developed and deployed using
> Open
> Source software. The technologies are Java, JSF and JXTA from Sun,
> JBoss Server, Tomcat from Apache Foundation, Eclipse, mySQL, Open
> Office and Linux. To provide that kind of solutions to my customers
> and
> show them the Open Source market place, I would really appreciate the
> support of an organization like Open Source WA. My clients could not
> afford full custom solutions using proprietary solutions from major
> vendors like Microsoft, IBM or others. With Open Source software, my
> clients can have their own custom applications at an affordable cost
> for their business with an excellent ROI. I truly think that the
> Small
> and Medium Businesses are the ideal market segment for Open Source
> solutions and we need an ambassador like Open Source WA to show them
> that Open Source solutions are real and solid.
> 
> I was about to start using the Open Source WA resources when, to my
> complete surprise, I was informed of its closure at the end of
> October.
> I would very much like to see that decision reconsidered for at least
> another year. The Open Source market is thriving in the Silicon
> Valley
> right now with VCs making heavy investments in Open source
> technologies. It would be very profitable for the WA economy to
> leverage these efforts.
> 
> If there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Fred Janon
> KAI Software
> 
>