Michelle Murrain and the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) have just published an update to their excellent "Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software: A primer for nonprofits". If your organization is considering a move to Open Source software (or if you want to push it in that direction), you should give this well-written guide a read.

The heart of the primer is found in Chapter 3, "How should you decide if FOSS will work for you?" Michelle writes, "All organizations should consider implementing FOSS. But in any organization, it is necessary to make a case for what can be a significant internal change." She then lays out a cogent overview of the costs and potential value of FOSS, with case studies to illustrate key points.

Later, Michelle argues that:

It is primarily perception, in our opinion, that prevents the wider adoption of FOSS alternatives. There is still the perception that FOSS is “for geeks only.” There is still the perception that FOSS is harder to support, or that it's not possible to find support for FOSS.

This guide works hard to remedy this problem. Give it a read.