1) How many people pay for MS support for Windows? There are SO MANY
more qualified MS Admins than Linux admins. It's easier to support
in-house. Plus, in my experience, Windows is more reliable than Linux
for some applications. Hell, I wish my Linux DNS server was as reliable
as my Windows server was.
2) You can innovate on an idea, but it will be hard to fund development
to bring the idea to fruition. And, since it's open source, someone can
just take your code, modify it, and call it their own.
To create "business level" applications, you need money. The Open Source
model does not allow for that.
Thane Sherrington wrote:
Interesting article:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/05/26/cz_dl_0526linux.html
The problems I see with his argument are:
1)He says that if you charge for service, then you are saying you are
giving people crap that requires service. But of course that's exactly
what the closed source companies do right now. Plus selling service
means it is in your best interest to make the lowest support software
possible, as that makes you more money (people will still pay for the
safety blanket of support, just like they do for insurance.)
2)He says that open source doesn't have the money to allow innovation.
I disagree - it doesn't take money to come up with an idea. If it's a
good idea, and you need it, then you can create a program that does it.
Since you are doing it for yourself, you don't expect to be paid. Once
you've finished it, you can release it as open source, and sell support
on it, which then allows you to improve the product.
T
