Horst,
I do concede many of these points. Most of them arose when I learned
the cold, hard reality of what is involved in supporting a product that
gets used in a commercial environment. Even in the early days, when
Argus was the responsibility of a university department, we were
overwhelmed by the responsibility it placed on my small team. Every one
of the points you raise is a direct consequence of desperate measures
taken (often reluctantly) to ensure that the product could be
supported, and was financially viable.
Even a small product like Argus requires this type of staff complement:
Developers - 3
Project Leader - 1
Analysts - 2
Help Desk - 3
Admin - 1
Infrastructure - 1
General management - 1
(Under)pay each of these people only $3000 per month, and your wage
bill alone is $36 000.
This is why one needs to engage in revenue generation.
A
Horst Herb wrote:
On Wednesday 20 September 2006 07:38, Andrew N. Shrosbree wrote:
4. Your altruistic motives will be derided by your competition, with
doubt being cast on your true agenda
5. You will be vilified by the opensource community if you dare to
deviate from their puritanical, idealistic view of software.
You know that I always have supported Argus and have fought hard to make it
happen in our Division and Area Health Services despite the fact that I was
not even using it myself, so I hope you will understand what I am saying
below (and why I say it):
Argus' problem always was and still is that you guys are neither fish nor
flesh. Neither really free nor really proprietary, neither really open or
really closed.
Open source - yes, source code available, of some version, not much
published - but dependent on proprietary 3rd party libraries (and at some
stage in the past at least dependent on proprietary development tools too).
No developer community engagement, no infrastructure for such.
Free download - but you have to go through a registration process
Free install - but you have to get a registration number
It's the same thing as "printing on forms". It's something sitting on a fence
that gets shot at from both sides because it does not belong to either side.
I doubt Argus will be happy and successful before you guys make your minds up
what you really want to be.
So, I am grateful that Argus is here. It is useful. It fills a void. It
works. But it feels so alien to me.
Horst
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--
Andrew N. Shrosbree B.Sc, B.Ec
Technical Director
ArgusConnect Pty Ltd
http://www.argusconnect.com.au
Suite 4, Greenhill Centre, Mt Helen
Victoria, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)3 5335 2214
Mob: +61 (0)415 645 291 (if I don't answer landline within 3 rings)
Skype: andrewshroz
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