[ale] open source wars at DOD

Pete Hardie pete.hardie at dvsg.sciatl.com
Fri May 24 14:12:17 EDT 2002


"Michael D. Hirsch" wrote:
> That is a justification for paying money for software, not for closing
> the source.  The two are not the same.  If you pay money for software,
> you have a right to expect good service, regardless of whether the
> source is open.

Unless I'm the first customer, any open source program had better not cost me
money for the program.  The main problem with open source is that the
original developer cannot make money except to the first customer - everyone
else
can get that program for free after it is written.  So the only revenue stream
from customers 2+ is for support, and that will be profitable only if lots of
customers want individual changes not desired by other customers.  Also, those
changes can be made by another development team, cutting the original developers
out of customers.

-- 
Pete Hardie                   |   Goalie, DVSG Dart Team
    posting from, but not     |
	speaking for:             |
Scientific Atlanta, Digital Video Services Group


     - - - - - - -  Appended by Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.  - - - - - - -  
This e-mail and any attachments may contain information which is confidential, proprietary, privileged or otherwise protected by law. The information is solely intended for the named addressee (or a person responsible for delivering it to the addressee). If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this message or any part of it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete it from your computer. 


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.






More information about the Ale mailing list