Do you Believe in Software Freedom ?

The Free Cloud Alliance believes that for the sake of customer respect, Open Source and and Free Software is best promoted whenever its promoters do use Open Source and Free Software daily for their own business.

The Free Cloud Alliance has thus created a short guideline to assess whether a software vendor which claims to believe in Open Source / Free Software acts according to its belief.

All members of the Free Software Alliance have passed with assessment with 70% or better mark.

WARNING: do not use this guideline for more than what it is meant for. In a world of Freedom and Open Competition, companies must be free to use whatever software fits best their needs, whether open source or proprietary. The only purpose of this guideline is to assess Open Source vendors based on tangible facts rather than on marketing materials, and make sure that they implement for themselves what they recommend to their clients.

Step 1: Core Questions

1- What software does your company use for accounting ?

2- What software does your company use for CRM ?

3- What software does your company use to prepare documents (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, illustration) sent to prospects or investors ?

4- What software does your company use for document management ?

5- What software does your company use for email ? (eliminatory if company uses SaaS service which does not comply with TIO Libre

6- What software does your company use for Web browsing ?

7- What operating system does the CEO of your company use on his business laptop ?

8- What operating system does the CTO of your company use on his business laptop ? (eliminatory if CTO uses MacOS or Windows)

9- Has the CEO or your company contributed himself to Free Software ? How many lines of code ? Please provide URL ?

10- Has the CTO or your company contributed himself to Free Software ? How many lines of code ? Please provide URL ? (eliminatory if CTO never contributed)

(if total of "FREE" answers > 70%, then company is said to believe in Software Freedom)

Step 2: Optional Questions for Java, C#, Solaris, etc.

Companies which products or services are based on development environments or operating systems for which both a proprietary and open source version exists (ex. Java, C#, Solaris, etc.) must in addition reply to the following questions.)

1- Do official release of the software you publish or use in your solutions recommend to use the open source versions of the operating system or development framework they are based on ? (please provide URL)

2- Does your company recommend its customers to use the open source version of the operating system or development framework its solutions are based on ? (please provide URL)

3- Does a majority of customers implement the open source version of operating system or development framework with your company solutions ? (please provide URL)

(if Yes < 50%, then eliminatory)