Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
Ted Roche wrote: On 4/20/07, Vince Teachout [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's unclear from your post what your client is supposed to be considering. I wasn't aware just how unclear it was, until you started asking questions. I'm looking for basic What is Open Source and Why is Open Source a GOOD thing? type articles, preferably with statistics. He has a 2 main products that are written in VFP. When I made the offhand remark that there is a push going on to try and get VFP source to become open source, his reaction was Oh No! That's bad, right? He's recently understood that he might be losing out on a business opportunity by not having a browser app, but when I mentioned PHP he said No, a lot of our clients shops are MS only, so it has to be ASP or Dot Net. They won't allow us to run PHP on their machines anyway And later he called back to say that he had mentioned PHP to someone, and they told him it was ok for small hobby sites, but couldn't scale to large sites and wasn't secure. Finally, he thinks that open source means we have to give away our intellectual property (source code). I'm trying to steer him towards XAMP in the future ( in addition to our current VFP software), because the Linux market for our product appears to be completely untapped, and I think the write-once deploy-many cross platform nature of Python would be a huge money maker. But I have a lot of 'splaining to do, first. I will be Googling my own homework, but I thought maybe others may have had this similar situation, and had standard links they might point their clients too. I did look at Cathedrial and Bazaar, btw, but way more techie than I'm looking for. Thanks! -- Vince Teachout Caracal Software www.caracal.net 518-733-9411 ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
Heya Vince -
you said, He's recently understood that he might be losing out on a
business opportunity by not having a browser app,
hm... Curiouser and Curiouser -
Did you do any staging for him with IIS, Active FoxPro Pages, and VFP ?
You can also do wintel Apache, Active FoxPro Pages, and VFP.
You can also do staging with him for IIS and Fox#, see
www.foxaccelerated.com . Ya - there's lots o 'stuff' out there on da site
, but once you start working with the framework and the smart client, it's
NICE to keep it all in VFP.
It's a nice pool to swim in.
Although I'm a fan o open source (love those postGreSql backends, dontcha
know), I am sticking mostly with VFP for workstation development (with a
punch through for Dabo this year).
Mondo Regards [Bill]
--
William Sanders / efGroup {rmv the DOT BOB to reply}
VFP Webhosting? You BET! - http://efgroup.net/vfpwebhosting
Failing dotNet Project? - http://www.dotnetconversions.com
___
Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com
Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox
OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech
Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox
This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the
author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added
to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
Php scales and is cross platform. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/10/15/php_scalability.html Java scales and essentially equivalent to Dot Net. The big difference between java and Dot Net is Java is a little more mature, more widely used, and run on Linux, Mac, Solaris, and about everything else, and its free. Also, perl and python scale and are cross platform. You might also take a look a Ruby on Rail as an application foundation. It uses AJAX which is good. There are a number of other AJAX application foundations that are commercial as well. Many large companies that develop all their software in house have taken advantage of the open source opportunity to add to their bottom line by reducing expenses while maintaining commercial grade quality. Advantages of open source are: It is free. The source code is made available, so application can easily be modified by a user. Also, security is increased when the source code is made available to everyone, so bug are spotted more quickly, and fixed more rapidly. Many commercial applications are developed using free open source software like perl, php, python, and Ruby on Rails, Also, many commercial applications take advantage of free open source databases like SQLite and PostgreSQL,. Many web based commercial application run on the Apache web server which works not only in Windows, but in Linux, Mac and Unix computers. Such Commercial applications will also run in Windows IIS. One big advantage of open source is choice. With open source you do not get locked into a single platform and vendor, and the Windows churn which keeps everyone reaching for their wallets to buy new software and computers is somewhat alleviated. These advantage certainly help me sleep better at night. Regards, LelandJ Vince Teachout wrote: Ted Roche wrote: On 4/20/07, Vince Teachout [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's unclear from your post what your client is supposed to be considering. I wasn't aware just how unclear it was, until you started asking questions. I'm looking for basic What is Open Source and Why is Open Source a GOOD thing? type articles, preferably with statistics. He has a 2 main products that are written in VFP. When I made the offhand remark that there is a push going on to try and get VFP source to become open source, his reaction was Oh No! That's bad, right? He's recently understood that he might be losing out on a business opportunity by not having a browser app, but when I mentioned PHP he said No, a lot of our clients shops are MS only, so it has to be ASP or Dot Net. They won't allow us to run PHP on their machines anyway And later he called back to say that he had mentioned PHP to someone, and they told him it was ok for small hobby sites, but couldn't scale to large sites and wasn't secure. Finally, he thinks that open source means we have to give away our intellectual property (source code). I'm trying to steer him towards XAMP in the future ( in addition to our current VFP software), because the Linux market for our product appears to be completely untapped, and I think the write-once deploy-many cross platform nature of Python would be a huge money maker. But I have a lot of 'splaining to do, first. I will be Googling my own homework, but I thought maybe others may have had this similar situation, and had standard links they might point their clients too. I did look at Cathedrial and Bazaar, btw, but way more techie than I'm looking for. Thanks! ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
On 4/22/07, Vince Teachout [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I wasn't aware just how unclear it was, until you started asking questions. I'm looking for basic What is Open Source and Why is Open Source a GOOD thing? type articles, preferably with statistics. On the economics of running your applications on Open Source? Perens has a high-level view: http://perens.com/Articles/Economic.html The Harvard Business School has a 55-page PDF written way back in 2000: http://www.people.hbs.edu/jlerner/simple.pdf but those are both too high-minded for what you're looking for, I think. He's recently understood that he might be losing out on a business opportunity by not having a browser app, but when I mentioned PHP he said No, a lot of our clients shops are MS only, so it has to be ASP or Dot Net. They won't allow us to run PHP on their machines anyway And later he called back to say that he had mentioned PHP to someone, and they told him it was ok for small hobby sites, but couldn't scale to large sites and wasn't secure. Nonsense. Some of the biggest sites in the world run on PHP. Finally, he thinks that open source means we have to give away our intellectual property (source code). Another common misconception. I'm trying to steer him towards XAMP in the future ( in addition to our current VFP software), because the Linux market for our product appears to be completely untapped, and I think the write-once deploy-many cross platform nature of Python would be a huge money maker. I think you have your work cut out for you. I am not convinced of WAMP, as I have very limited experience with Apache on Windows. If you have to buy the Windows server license anyway, what's the difference between IIS and Apache, well, besides security? I am less comfortable running *anything* on Windows, since exploits are so much more common on the platform. A workstation can be replaced if it goes hinky, but what about the server? I'd prefer to have a headless Linux box running the show than a Windows server someone decides to use as a spare internet browsing machine. I just don't see the compelling story for Windows on servers. But I have a lot of 'splaining to do, first. I will be Googling my own homework, but I thought maybe others may have had this similar situation, and had standard links they might point their clients too. I did look at Cathedrial and Bazaar, btw, but way more techie than I'm looking for. Thanks! Googling Business Case for Open Source yields some good hits, too: http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/case_for_business.php -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
On 4/20/07, Vince Teachout [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It looks like I might finally have a chance of getting one of my major clients to consider open source! This is a guy that is leery of anything not MS. It's unclear from your post what your client is supposed to be considering. It is consider using Open Source like FireFox? Use Open source like Linksys boxes? Use the internet, run on Bind and Apache? Or open sourcing his application? I need to get him some easy to understand, positive, information on open source. I will be Googling, of course, but do any of you have some links that you've found to be helpful? The Cathedral and the Bazaar http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ CatB might be a good start. Are you interested in talking about the economics of FOSS? Or the legal aspects? Or the business cases? There's a HUGE amount of literature on FOSS. What kind are you looking for? -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
RE: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
Just get him a little Linux box with Open Office and Firefox. It's pretty decent and maybe he'll grow to appreciate it. Regards, Scott Ramey BDS Software -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Vince Teachout Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 2:52 PM To: Profox Subject: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source? It looks like I might finally have a chance of getting one of my major clients to consider open source! This is a guy that is leery of anything not MS. I need to get him some easy to understand, positive, information on open source. I will be Googling, of course, but do any of you have some links that you've found to be helpful? -- Vince Teachout Caracal Software www.caracal.net 518-733-9411 [excessive quoting removed by server] ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
Re: [NF] Good overviews of Open Source?
Scott Ramey wrote: Just get him a little Linux box with Open Office and Firefox. It's pretty decent and maybe he'll grow to appreciate it. If it were only that simple. He's not a computer user. He's the owner of a corporation, and he has a well established line of software in use throughout the USA. I'm trying to open his eyes to the possibilities offered by open source. But he's heard the standard scare stories of no support, closed shops won't buy it, we'll have to give our proprietary source code away, etc, etc, etc. ___ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
