Moogie
06-16-2004, 10:08 AM
Here's an interesting look at Open Source, written by <A HREF="mailto:press.releases@theregister.co.uk"><U>Philip Howard</U></A> of The Register. <br><br><table width="90%" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1" bordercolor="#63635A" bgcolor="#E7E7E2" align="center"><tr><td style="font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;">Let's be clear about this. There are four different reasons for choosing an open source solution. First, because you want to play around with the code; second, because you have ethical concerns over the extent to which proprietary vendors should be allowed to profit from their products; third, because you think the product is better or more suitable for what you want it for than any proprietary equivalent; and fourth, because it is cheaper.<br><br>Now, as far as most businesses are concerned, they are not interested in the code and they couldn't give a tinker's cuss about the philosophy. The third point is worth consideration but I don't think you could point to any open source product that was demonstrably better (or equivalent in most cases) than all of its proprietary counterparts. This is not to say, of course, that some of these products are not significant players within their respective markets. They are, but they probably wouldn't be if they weren't cheap.<br></td></tr></table><br><br>For the complete article by Mr. Howard, look <a href="http://www.theregister.com/2004/06/16/open_source_licensing_model/"><u>HERE.</u></a><br>