Mark Freeze wrote: > Does anyone have any good sources for the 'theory behind' open source, > or open source practices?
Here's my favorite quote about Linux and FOSS. Sums up why I use it to run my network: <quote> ...for all its flaws, the open-source model has powerful advantages. The deepest and also most interesting of these advantages is that, to put it grossly, open source takes the bullshit out of software. It severely limits the possibility of proprietary "lock-in"--where users become hostage to the software vendors whose products they buy--and therefore eliminates incentives for vendors to employ the many tricks they traditionally use on each other and on their customers. The transparency inherent in the open-source model also limits secrecy and makes it harder to avoid accountability for shoddy work. People write code differently when they know the world is looking at it. Similarly, software companies behave differently when they know that customers who don't like a product can fix it themselves or switch to another provider. On the available evidence, it appears that the secrecy and maneuvering associated with the traditional proprietary software business generate enormous costs, inefficiencies, and resentment. Presented with an alternative, many people will leap at it. </quote> TechnologyReview.com How Linux Could Overthrow Microsoft By Charles Ferguson June 2005 http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/06/issue/feature_linux.asp Dane -- Dane Miller Technology Coordinator Olney Friends School Barnesville, Ohio -- 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/
