Tanner Lovelace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > With Open Source you have the opportunity to teach > yourself what you need to do to fix whatever problem you have.
There's another part, one that I think too many both inside the Open Source community and outside miss. One of the most critical functions provided by "Joe User" with any software is to discover deficiencies: either missing features or outright bugs. This is a role that can be played by anyone. In closed source, when Joe User discovers something which doesn't work the way he wants, he has two choices: adapt to the way it does work, or lobby the vendor for change. Open Source, through the simple threat of a fork, provides a third option, choose someone elses implementation. With Open Source, the more people there are just using the software, the more likely it is that deficiencies will be found and changes provided. These "changes" might not always be correct, but "correct" is something for the users to decide. -- Steve Holton [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
