Re: A Customer's Request For Open Source Software

[Preben Randhol <randhol+abuse@pvv.org>]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> Absolutely. Volunteer projects will move very slowly and will likely not 
> be nearly as spiffy as something you can buy off the shelf in a 
> shrink-wrap box. (Like Quicken or other commercial products) They are 
> also far more likely to appear "organically grown" than "designed". All 
> of which is an incentive to go use what you can purchase commercially 
> rather than wait for some volunteer freeware to show up.

The notion that something that looks nice and shiny on the cover is a
better product is a foolish thought. Alas it is widespread. Remember
once in an expo an experiment was done. A new computer with normal
design was displayed (it was in the 80's so it wasn't so common as
today) and beside it an very elegant new computer cache design that
contained nothing inside was put next to it. The customers were mostly
all interested in the latter even if it didn't contain the computer.

Whether organically grown is a bad thing can be discussed. I have see
too many articles in the newspapers of big software projects that
failed and had to be scrapped because the design didn't fit with the
usage. Sure a good design is a good thing and it saves a lot of work,
but are you quite sure that the requirements won't change? In science
one design ones experiments, but one do redesign them after examining
the results to delve deeper into the problem. I would say one would need
both a good design and organic growth of the software.

But why would one necessarily think that the shrink-wrapped commercial
version is better designed? 

> Or, one could imagine that there is a good commercial potential here
> and figure out if its worth doing as a business venture. It would
> potentially produce jobs programming in Ada and profits for the people
> who put in the sweat equity of developing the initial software. It
> would almost certainly get done sooner and with a more "professional"
> look if a team of for-profit minded developers were working on it.

If you want to write open source software in the free time it must be
for either of two reasons:

   1) You are making the software for yourself, but don't mind sharing
      it with others.
      
   2) You are making the software with an intent to one day perhaps be
      able to make a professional version you can sell with a support
      license.

At any rate the project is your "baby" and you will need to care for it
to grow. If your work is to make a system you don't need to care so much
just get the job done so you earn your pay.


-- 
�I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet.
 So who am I to judge.�
                 - The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radioplay)