on 10/19/00 8:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> In my personal view, the biggest advantage to commercial products is not the
> technical support that you get, but the fact that your legal liability is
> moved from my desk to another corporation. :-)
Have you ever actually read a software license before? They disclaim *any*
and *all* liability - good luck suing any software company for any reason.
Here are a couple examples:
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/html98/wrap05m_20000505.html>
<http://www.cptech.org/ecom/ucita/shrinkwraplegal.html>
The UCITA has stripped whatever rights you *may* have had away completely:
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/features/990531ucita3.htm
<http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/ucita.html>
<http://www.badsoftware.com/uccindex.htm>
<http://www.4cite.org/HotNews.html>
I use whatever software is best for the job - open source or commercial it
doesn't matter to me. It's not an ethical decision for me, it's merely
pragmatic. However, when you use open source (free software) you:
1. Have the source code in your possession. If there's a problem you can fix
it yourself, pay a programmer (or the maintainer) to fix it or appeal to the
community for help.
2. Don't have to worry about $$$$ for licensing fees - that can save a lot
of $$$$ for other things like salaries, more computers, benefits, etc.
3. Often have greater reliability than commercial solutions.
Yes they often have rougher edges and a poorer configuration user interfaces
but you're free to build that and add it if you'd like - it's open. ;-)
--
Darron
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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