I think I may have discovered something that deeply disturbs the Open Source nature of the LinuxCzar.  As email becomes such a hot topic in universities it seems a trend is developing.  Many universities start out with an Open Source based email system.  Enter the bureaucrats and the email, outsourcing policies.  The university in question switches to some pay-ware.  The pay-ware option shows poor performance and many problems.  Next, the university outsources all email.

Outsourcing email doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the above situation.  Open Source works.  Let’s move to something better (by better I mean totally broken).  Oops, its broke bad, call Google, shove the remains under the carpet.

Would outsourcing still be as prevalent if universities keep with their Open Source email environments?  Would staying with Open Source reduce costs more than switching to pay-ware and then outsourcing?