__/ [ Kelsey Bjarnason ] on Friday 11 May 2007 01:59 \__
> On Thu, 10 May 2007 01:54:16 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Open Source Opportunities for Cash-Strapped Startups
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Companies using proprietary Web site and database applications,
>> | such as Microsoft.Net and Oracle, are paying high prices for the
>> | licenses to those programs. That cost then gets passed on to clients.
>
> Well, let's be fair: there *are* cases where using a commercial product is
> the best solution; they are just not the norm anymore.
>
> Currently, in house, we have a new guy who wants to set up email
> internally; we've also talked about setting up a groupware solution.
>
> His recommendations? Exchange and now Lotus Notes.
>
> Why? No idea.
Maybe because the brand names sound kind of nice.
> So far he hasn't presented any case for using those over,
> say, Postfix and egroupware, yet his recommendation is consistently to go
> with closed, proprietary and more expensive solutions which, on the whole,
> do less than their free and open counterparts.
Let's face the fact that, in this case, the vendors are unlikely to disappear
next year. What about those who relies on Eudora. Closed-source, retired, no
more security patches, no access to the program that you actually own.
That's why Open Source projects, particularly ones that involve the clients,
are the safer choice.
> Someone has to pay for it. If that cost is justified - if the commercial
> offerings actually bring enough more to the table to warrant the cost -
> then fine, go for it. So far, however, this has not been demonstrated to
> be the case.
Even Linux users pay some Windows/CSS tax, whether it's because of the place
they live in, work for, or the nation in which they pay tax. That's why
nations should take software under their own wing. AT present, it's very
imperial.
> I do believe he suffers from "pay more, get less" syndrome.
Many people think that more expensive is necessarily better. Some shops take
advantage of this misconception. It's rleated to the trick of changing
trends (e.g. fashion) to make old stuff obsolete or sell something more
expensive. It's a form of price fixing sometimes.
--
~~ Best regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: Sharks are immune to cancer
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Cpu(s): 23.2% user, 2.9% system, 0.7% nice, 73.2% idle
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