[Fsfe-uk] Re: [discuss] Re: Re: [discuss] Open source software News

[Chris Sherlock]

ian wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-03-12 at 12:38, Chris Sherlock wrote:
>
> > I suppose this seems like a fair enough answer... I guess you see 
> > software more as an infrastructure that the govt should maintain and 
> > develop. I'm still not so sure...
>
>
> Not really, I see the government as a large customer for software acting
> on behalf of me, the taxpayer and if I wanted a piece of software to go
> on 100,000 desktops and I knew I could commission its development for
> say £1m, I certainly wouldn't use someone else's code licensed at £100 a
> machine. Its simple economics. 1 < 10 and once the code is GPL'd other
> people will use it and probably lower my costs in other software
> acquisition.
>
> I have no problem with paying for licenses for a specialist product
> where it cost say £10k in licenses but the development cost would be
> millions.

That's actually a pretty interesting point. I didn't think of it like that.

> > What I *do* think, however, is that governments should make it 
> > compulsory for software companies (and peripheral companies, in 
> > particular!) to open their code.
>
>
> That would require legislation though I'm not against it. My solution is
> simply using existing criteria for best value. In fact it could be
> argued that the Government is acting illegally in not doing so.

Ah, but now I'm not just talking about the benefit to the goverment. I'm 
now talking about the benefit of open code to ALL consumers. The point 
shifted slightly but importantly :P

People should be able to get access to source-code to fix things that 
don't work, should they so wish. For instance they shouldn't have to 
wait for 6 months for some security flaw to be fixed!

If my car breaks down, I can get it fixed. If my closed-source software 
has a bug in it, can I get it fixed even if I pay for it? Not unless the 
creators can be bothered to. I suppose the argument could be to take it 
back to the place of purchase for a refund - well here's why this won't 
work:

1. Ever tried this? the standard response is that it must be a system 
failure (trust me, I work for a fairly large company and I hear people 
say this to customer's all the time) or that they don't offer refunds on 
software because it's already used.

2. Why should I? Why can't I just get the damned thing repaired? I might 
actually like the product but not the support I'm getting 'cause the 
company who made the software is sticking their head in the sand and 
denying that anything is at fault (or they can't reproduce the problem - 
how many times has *that* happened I wonder).


> > Do you know the number of times I've 
> > had to scrap or make do with 2nd-best because I couldn't see the source 
> > code of some crappy product???? :) I guess that's why I only run Linux 
> > now (especially now I've worked out CUPS and Samba).
>
>
> You are doing better than me then :-)

You aren't using Linux exclusively or your having problems setting up 
CUPS and Samba? :P If the latter give me an email and I'll see if I can 
help, if the former - get a move on and upgrade! :)

Regards,
Chris