[pmwiki-users] open-source advantages (was: Re: UTF-8 case insensitive index)
Neil Herber (nospam)
nospam at eton.ca
Fri Apr 6 11:15:11 CDT 2007
On 2007-04-06 Patrick R. Michaud is rumoured to have said:
>> That's exactly what I dislike in most opensource projects. Slow development,
>> > missing features and unfixed bugs is ok for a hobby project though far from
>> > adequate for anything productive.
>
> I didn't realize that closed-source projects were any better in this
> regard. If you have a feature that you want added to a closed-sourced
> product, does it occur any quicker than with open source ones? Could you
> give an example that you've personally witnessed or experienced?
>
Open-source software has several advantages over
commercial/closed-source software:
1) Price
2) Ability to examine the source code (important to security mavens).
3) Possibility of adding your own features if you have the skill and time.
4) Large potential pool of developers
5) Few constraints on use
I don't think it is fair to lump open-source in with "hobby-projects".
Certainly some are - but then so are some "commercial" projects. I have
paid for several pieces of commercial software that later disappeared
completely, either through bankruptcy or absorbtion.
--
Neil Herber
Corporate info at http://www.eton.ca/
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