Orlando Andico wrote:
First of all, I'm a lurker here in PLUG. ^_^ This particular thread have really gone the long way. Bottom line, pragmatism. Use whatever works for the situation at hand. While saving money is certainly a big come on for a CIO or CEO, one has to look at the big picture. Especially during this recession-ridden time, think of what is most cost effective in the long term. Open source hard asses often forget ROI. One frequently sees the short term advantages, which unfortunately doesn't always equate to long-term advantages. Use the right tools for the job, be it open sourced or closed source. Hopefully we can end this inane thread before somebody blows a valve.On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 12:31 AM, joebert jacaba <[email protected]> wrote:On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 10:33 AM, Orlando Andico <[email protected]> wrote:Generally people moving from Free software to closed-source do so for these reasons:1) they need some proprietary software that doesn't run on Free (e.g. SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Infor, Baan.....)why not the owners of these try to make this run on "Free"Joebert, these enterprise applications are completely non-Free. So the people who wrote these applications have zero initiative to make them run on Free. You think Oracle DB EE cost is prohibitive? then you should look at the cost of SAP ERP... :-) Of course there are open-source ERP such as SugarCRM. But a good ERP solution requires deep knowledge of business rules and transactions. For say a car manufacturer, that's not knowhow you can pick up off the street. The Free software model has worked well for baseline infrastructure because there's enough skillset out there that the "many eyeballs" approach works. But as you go up the value chain, more and more domain knowledge is required and Free starts falling apart. Let's even look at MySQL Cluster -- the main architect, Mikael Ronstrom, is a Ph.D. and has devoted the past 15 years of his life to developing MySQL Cluster. He didn't start out in Free software, he just had a dream. Good for him Ericsson, MySQL, and now Sun are willing to pay his salary so he can chase his dream. But the algorithms in MySQL Cluster are sufficiently complex that there isn't a large community helping him build it -- it's still mostly Mikael. Clearly, that's one instance where I think the Free way of software development has fallen short.2) they need additional functionality (e.g. that shopping cart you built on LAMP, now needs to talk to MasterCard, so you need PCI and SOX compliance)open card network? can these laws be made fair to "Free"?The open card network is a non-starter. Anyone who's worked in financial services here knows that a single bank is already a study in conservatism. Consider that American Express is a distant third place to Mastercard and Visa. A lot of places here in PH don't even accept American Express. How a "fourth party" "open card network" would do better than Amex which has been around for 30+ years, eludes my comprehension.4) the CIO got nervous about running the heart of the business on Free softwarei have yet to see a Closed comapny not to use this as a marketing tool.Guess what... Free software support companies such as Red Hat and Novell/SuSE also use a variant of this as a marketing tool ("our billion-dollar company will GUARANTEE that your Free software is up to snuff!") The fact that people buy into it means that the proposition has value. Maybe the systems you're familiar with aren't critical enough (or produce enough money) that you can't see the value..
-- Peter Santiago [email protected] My website: www.psinergybbs.com My spamtrap address: [email protected]
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
_________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
