We all use open-source software every day. What? You don't? Have you used Google, watched a Netflix show, or liked a buddy's Facebook post? Congrats, you're an open-source user.
But, true, most of us don't use end-user open-source software every day. Even staffers at CERN[1], one of the world's great research institutions, don't -- and they run the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)[2], the world's largest particle accelerator, on it. But, on the desktop, they use Microsoft-based programs like many users around the globe. That's changing now.
Beginning a year ago, CERN launched the Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt)[3]. The name says it all.
CERN wants to get away from Microsoft programs for a very prosaic reason: To save money.
Iban Eguia, a CERN software engineer, tweeted: "At @CERN[4], we are moving away from @Microsoft products[5] due to their license fee increases for our research laboratory. We will try to use open-source software as much as possible. :)"
Emmanuel Ormancey, a CERN system analyst, explained that commercial software licenses, with their per-user fee structure are unaffordable, for CERN[6]. For decades, CERN could afford Microsoft programs because it paid "academic institution" rate. All good things must come to an end. Recently, Microsoft revoked CERN's academic status, and it replaced the old contract with user number-based one. This increased "the license costs by more than a factor of 10. Although CERN has negotiated a ramp-up profile over q0 years to