That's Right
But.... Sometimes.. Open source developers need to feel a sense of
responsibility of their code and document.
I think....Usability is also a major indicator for users or administrators.
-----Original Message-----
From: chad@mr-lew.com [mailto:chad@mr-lew.com]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 8:32 AM
To: Joseph (Joe) Lynn
Cc: firewalls@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Open Source vs Proprietary
In my experience, it seems to be more of a support issue.
Some managers feel more comfortable with buying a product
from a "known" company.
With it they can get:
1) A qualified support staff (if they pay for it)
2) System upgrades (if they pay for them)
3) Life cycle replacements (if the product is still made,
and they pay for it)
4) System patches (if they are made and sometimes paid for)
With Open Source (OS) they get:
1) None of the above
However, this is only their perception. In reality, they
often do not choose to pay the cost of the support from the
company. So the guys using the equipment are left to search
the web and purchase books out of their own pocket to learn
how to support it (what you do any way with OS). Upgrades
often come with support, so you go without those as well
(the OS community often provides those in short time with a
new/better version). They often do not pay for life cycle
replacement, until they finally budget for a replacement,
but they don't want to pay the new prices or get new
features, the old one was fine (OS doesn't cost a cent).
System patches you can usually get... after the known
company FINALLY releases the patch when THEY feel it is
needed (OS releases it ASAP).
IMO, it comes down to perception that is often mis-guided on
the part of the managers. If they talked to their staff and
really LISTENED, they would see that OS would actually be
better (and provide for a lower TCO) in a LOT of cases
(maybe more than that).
All too often I have seen a manager turn their nose up when
you mention an OS application/tool to end up selecting
a "known" product with much less support (from company & OS
community). The end result is that training is often harder
to find and more expensive, and the learning curve is a lot
harder to traverse than with an OS application/tool that
MANY people are working to find the same solution/method
that you desire.
That's my take on it,
Lew
