--- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 07:21 PM 4/10/2002 -0700, you wrote: > >--- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > To open up another avenue of discussion.. But > can it > > > also be said that more > > > open source than commercial software is written > by > > > self-trained or > > > hobbyists programmers? Could this result in the > > > average open source program > > > being written poorly, or at least not with the > same > > > rigor as commercial > > > programs? > > > >Sure, but nobody should expect the average open > source > >software to work well "right out of the box", > whereas > > Why not? Why should businesses or even your average > Joe B. Consumer want to > use open source software if it isn't ready out of > the box?
You misquoted me. I said "average open source software". Check the number of projects in freshmeat.net or sourceforge.net that are in version alpha: _the majority of them_. Linux, Apache, SendMail, Gnutella, etc, are not "average open source software". Again, you are using a bad yardstick to compare commercial and open source software. > We need to > remember that 99.9% of users aren't developers. So > if we push open source > software then we need to be ready to support users > that use it. I have an easy solution to that: I push open source software I am able to support, i.e.; not beta OSS. > >it is reasonable to expect commercial software to > work > >well, since we pay $ for it. We usually test the > heck > > Agreed. > > >out of it before putting it in to a production > >environment. Or, we rely on the reputation of a > >specific OSS package. > > > >Agreed, there are a lot of crappy OSS and OS > >programmers out there, but all we can really do is > >point fingers and jeer. Given enough > programmers|will > >power|time, even crappy OSS can get better. > > Sure. > > >I don't think it is productive to measure OSS and > >commercial software by the same yardsticks. But, I > >don't know what the yardsticks are for OSS. > > I don't either. But I do think that some yardsticks > can be used by both > camps. Key measurements include reliability, > consistency, usability!, and > scalability. No arguments here. The OSS needs to raise the level of quality of the software that it claims is ready for public use. But, because it _is_ OSS, it is by definition available to the public. This is at the center of our discussion I think. John Hebert > Regards, Dustin > > > > > > Perhaps we should take Microsoft out of the > > > discussion and only include all > > > other commercial software. It's too easy to > attack > > > Microsoft code, and they > > > are certainly not the major supplier of [all] > > > software. Let's consider open > > > source vs. commercial-code-without-Microsoft to > keep > > > the conversation on > > > track. And if someone brings up Microsoft I'll > bring > > > up Sendmail as a > > > counter example. > > > >Good enough. > > > >John Hebert > > > >__________________________________________________ > >Do You Yahoo!? > >Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax > >http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > >================================================ > >BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group > >Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. > >Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change > >your subscription information. > >================================================ > > > --- > Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > UNIX and Network Consultant > http://members.telocity.com/~dpuryear > PGP Key available at http://www.us.pgp.net > In the beginning the Universe was created. > This has been widely regarded as a bad move. - > Douglas Adams > > ================================================ > BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group > Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. > Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change > your subscription information. > ================================================ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ================================================ BRLUG - The Baton Rouge Linux User Group Visit http://www.brlug.net for more information. Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to change your subscription information. ================================================
