You say that "you can bet your business on Free Software"; how do you back up that statement?

How can you bet your business on proprietary software? If a company is bought, goes bankrupt or merges or decides to delete a product line you have no choice but to go with whatever product or path they desire. How can you plan when the company keeps changing its licensing terms, and you have no real alternatives? What do you do when the company that makes your software puts its own profits and its values ahead of yours, the customer? When the software company holds back on releasing the latest bug fix so it fits its "release schedule?" When you can't get that one little feature added that would allow you to streamline your business, save a lot of money and beat your competition to market?

What happens if that company (no matter where it is) is embargoed?

Can you expand a little on what you will be talking about at the Linux world conference?

You hear a lot today about total cost of ownership (TCO). Well, TCO is important, because if you do not have the money to implement the solution, you are not going anywhere. But a lot of times you could borrow the money, and if that solution offered to you was five or six times more powerful than the one you would buy "off the shelf", and save you five or six times more money in the long run, wouldn't it be smarter to take the one that gives better ROI? Perhaps better ROI with lower risk? People have become used to buying what is offered them, not deciding what they want and going after that better solution.