"I can't think of one open source, community-based product that I'd want to hang my hat on, even if I do see some that I'd support. I just don't see the professional depth in the general community."
Linux? Gcc? >From what I can tell Linux pretty much owns much of the market for servers and many consumer related markets. The server that carries this list is more than likely Linux based. Isn't the K4 linux based? Linux is open source last time I checked. I'm not seeing that closed source has a better track record, ie. Microsoft... How many commercial products are sold every year that become orphaned? Not being open source helped the consumer. 99% of consumers couldn't extend the life of a product five seconds either way. I too have run my own engineering business for decades, close to 30 years. During that time I've worked for both large and small companies doing R&D and production. If you are honest, open vs closed source has nothing to do with the quality of the product, either SW or HW. The quality is more of a commitment of the creators, experience helps build that, and commitment to good process. Elecraft didn't do this on their own, they depend on feedback from their users to keep a tight loop on quality. Sure, they could hire a massive Q&A team, but why when they have an experienced pool of users/testers who pay them to the QA. Wayne and Eric are clearly exceptional entrepreneurs who are in this for the long term. They care about their products and customers. Open vs closed is moot. It's simply a business call, and their call to make. My guess is that you may not even be aware of the open source influenced products you own. (Routers, tv's, etc..) That is a totally different argument whether Elecraft should open their source vs quality... I personally see quality and crap on both sides of the isle, and there is no monopoly involved... Len ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
