On Wed, 26 May 2004, kennedy-downwithspammersfamily_at_attbi.net
wrote:
>
> "Noons" <wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam> wrote in message
> news:40b48b37$0$8987$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au...
>> Quirk wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > Only vendors of free software face different factors.
>>
>> Can someone explain to me how does
>> "free software" get sold by its "vendors"?
>>
>> Jeez...
>> Boy, am I glad I'm too busy to waste time on this one...
>> --
>> Cheers
>> Nuno Souto
>> wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam
>
> Same thing as military intelligence. While we are on it. I
> really don't see a benefit having source code as a customer.
> Let's say I had Oracle's source code. Big woop. Does anyone
> really think most of us have time to learn it and then "enhance
> it" or "fix it"? No, unrealistic, companies have enough
> trouble keeping their home grown applications up and running
> never mind adding 10 more things I could twiddle with.
> Sometimes too many choices is not a good thing. As a matter of
> mere curiosity, sure I would love to learn how they do some
> things, but not realistic to change the source code to fit what
> I need. Then new hardware comes out with new features and so I
> have the source code. Most businesses would not want to spin
> their wheels writing some new disk driver to take advantage of
> a new CPU instruction or some such thing. (Or if they could
> they shouldn't, stick to knitting.) That isn't to say open
> source is a bad thing, but having the source code isn't always
> a benefit. No economies of scale to be your own support
> organization for everything. Or some Yahoo changes the source
> code unbeknownst to you. (yes, should be under version
> control, but that does not always happen in some shops)
Success of open source isn't solely dependent on the purchaser
tinkering. One thing you could do, if it was open source, was
hire someone who specialized in that technology to fix it for
you. With closed source, the only option you have is Oracle
releasing a patch or new version. Thats it.
--
Galen Boyer
Received on Wed May 26 2004 - 20:35:16 CDT
