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Bob Young wrote: |
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> |
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> That being said, way less than 5 percent of the population has even |
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> the slightest bit of interest in learning the things that you and I |
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> have chosen to dig in to...Those people are no less "free" for using |
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> CSS, and the fact is, that "those people" are the vast majority of |
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> the population. |
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> |
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> |
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Actually, I'd tend to differ on this point. Many people on this list |
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either currently do or eventually will work in a non-IT-oriented |
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industry. Such industries tend to not hire many programmers, and those |
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that they do hire tend to coordinate outsourced effort, and function |
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mainly as integrators of pre-packaged functionality. Even so, most of |
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these industries will require their vendors to escrow their source code |
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and will generally prefer FOSS when all other things are equal (which |
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unfortunately is not always the case). Why? They'll NEVER modify the |
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source code themselves, so why should they care? Simple - one day if |
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their vendor doesn't meet their needs they can give that source code to |
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somebody else to maintain - possibly another vendor who can use the |
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source to smooth the migration process to their platform. |
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Would you buy a car that used 387/863" bolts and parts of other |
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non-standard dimensions? You might never fix your own car, but you will |
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recognize that if you buy something that follows a standard it will be |
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cheaper for you to pay others to fix it. A car which uses parts which |
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have been around for 10 years will be VERY cheap to maintain compared to |
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one that requires import parts from a single supplier. |
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Open-source software has a lot of benefits even for non-programmers. |
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Buy a proprietary DVR and you can almost guarantee that you won't be |
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able to migrate your programming when you upgrade models in a few years, |
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and you probably won't be able to upgrade it. Buy a pre-packaged DVR |
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that uses FOSS and most likely there WILL be an upgrade and migration |
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path - it might cost you to have it taken care of for you, but with the |
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proprietary system it will cost you a LOT more. |
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So, FOSS has a lot of potential to benefit ordinary computer users. Not |
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just those who tinker with their PCs. |
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Does that mean that it ALWAYS makes sense to use an FOSS package, when a |
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proprietary package better meets your requirements? Of course not! |
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But, I always put FOSS on MY list of requirements, and if I have to |
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trade-off one requirement for another I do so as-needed. But, I've |
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gotten burned by proprietary software many times, so I'm inclined to |
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lean towards FOSS unless it really doesn't meet some fundamental need. |
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You have to figure in the total cost of ownership - which includes |
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future expansion and migration to the next platform. Sure, it is easier |
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to store my email in Outlook than in a .maildir served up by IMAP - but |
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when the next fancy email client comes along the latter requires zero |
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effort to migrate. |
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Just my two cents - if you feel some requirement is lacking in FOSS |
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proprietary software might be right for you. But factor in all the |
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costs - it might not be as good a choice as it appears on the surface. |
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