Well, it'll allow development of it to move faster, that's one thing
open source projects are famous for-just look at how FireFox or Chrome
has changed compared to IE.
People will also appreciate the flexibility of being able to scratch
their own particular itch. Lets say you're the sys admin at a place
that's using this software and you notice that, as is quite common in
software, only a certain subset of functionality is being used. You
could compile a custom version omitting features you don't need,
streamlining the app. This could (depending on the app) reduce disk
space, memory usage, lower network traffic. End users would also
notice because it'd be faster and more responsive to their needs.
Lets say that that same admin finds that a lot of users are confused
by a particular screen and has an idea of how to improve it. Even if
the company that makes the software accepts the enhancement request it
could be some time before they get around to it especially if there is
not much demand or if there are more pressing issues. If it's an open
source app our admin could just dive in, fix it him (or her)self and
create a patch that others can use to make the same changes quickly
and easily.
Freedom to hack aside a major issue, even for small busnisses, can be
licensing restrictions imposed by proprietry software. In the
organisation I work for we have spent a lot of money on auditing
software and spent a lot of time trying to weed out noncompliances.
This is made especially difficult if the a company changes the name of
a product to a confusingly similar one or if they are having
difficulty detecting it using the auditing software. I'm sure some of
you have been there personally and can fully appreciate what an
unecessary burden this can be. Open source software simplifies this
greatly as it allows our hypothetical sys admin to basically just
download and install it wherever they want.
I've just mentioned some of the obvious and most widely cited
advantages to open source but I'd like to end with a warning: just
because it's open source, it doesn't mean you can just leave all the
support to the community. In fact, they could be losing out greatly if
they did.
One of the main sticking points preventing adoption of open source
software for production use where I work is support. I happened to be
looking at some server builds with a colleague today, one of which is
a development server. We're still using VSS 6, which neither of us
like very much. I asked if we've ever looked at moving away from it.
Apparently we have and the main problems are:
1. we'd lose all the code revision history which goes back years and
can be indispensable.
2. If we do lose code (which has happened before) we'd need telephone
and email support stat. Posting on a message board and hoping that
someone who knows what they're talking about will reply back with a
solution soon while everything's in meltdown simply isn't an option.
3. It's got to be compatible with our current development
environments. i.e. Visual Studio 2005 - there are some out there but
they're unsupported.
4. The danger in actually making the transition.
Although we might like to, it'd just not worth the risk and the hassel
for the extra features we'd get. Would you like to be solely
responsible for doing all this? If there was someone we could sign a
support contract with for something like SVN that'd be a major boon.
You should bear in mind that most of the money made in IT isn't
through selling the software but the support contracts and the
renewals. Making the software FOSS will mean they can reach a much
wider audience and present more opportunities for this sort of thing.
Community based solutions are great but they should really be used to
supplement a dedicated paid-for solution, not replace it.
I realise this is a longish email so I won't go on any more. I hope
this gives you some ideas.
Regards,
Mark Reynolds
2009/3/13 Tim Dobson <address@hidden>:
Hey there,
A prominent company has talked to me with regards to moving their product
away from their current traditional proprietary software business model and
making it either freeware or free software/open source.
I'd prefer not to mention the company name or exact field but I wonder if
people could summarise the advantages of freeing ones software and what this
can encourage as opposed to simply giving it away at no cost.
If I can clarify anything, please say and I'll see what I can say..
I'll let you know which they choose in the end - when it's publicly
announced.
Thanks,
Tim
--
www.tdobson.net
----
If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
still has one object.
If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now
has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw
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