From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00, HK_RANDOM_FROM,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,afb4d45672b1e262 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!cycny01.gnilink.net!spamkiller.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!trnddc04.POSTED!20ae255c!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Justin Gombos Subject: Re: Making money on open source, if not by selling _support_, then References: <7NOdne-iYtWmIafZnZ2dnUVZ_tWdnZ2d@megapath.net> <292bf$443bb4e4$45491254$20549@KNOLOGY.NET> <739b0$443e4f69$45491254$22018@KNOLOGY.NET> User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1 (Linux) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:37:22 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.44.77.228 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: trnddc04 1144957042 129.44.77.228 (Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:37:22 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:37:22 EDT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3820 Date: 2006-04-13T19:37:22+00:00 List-Id: On 2006-04-13, Larry Kilgallen wrote: > In article <739b0$443e4f69$45491254$22018@KNOLOGY.NET>, "Marc A. Criley" writes: > >> And this occurs in the proprietary software world as well. On two >> instances in my career a customer pays a vendor to modify their >> product in a certain way. The vendor continues to own the product >> in whole, the customer simply now gets a release that does what >> they need-- > > and gets assurance that the modifications will continue in the > product line. This is a major improvement to the mainframe model > where customers get source to the product but will have to > re-integrate local changes into successive versions of the product. You get no such assurance with closed proprietary software because you are at the mercy of the vendor to provide this (and remain in business). This risk evaporates when you're working with open source, as there is always the option of hiring a contractor (which has the added benefit of keeping the cost a competitive market rate rather than a monopolizing inflated rate). -- PM instructions: do a C4esar Ciph3r on my address; retain punctuation.