Re: Shareware on the i - Need some opinions....

[cfuture <cfuture@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Most participants in open source software also make the point that the 
advantages are not just theoretical, at this point they're practical and 
they've been proven, at least for quite a few different applications. 
Linux, Firefox, Open Office, Apache, PHP, Perl, the list goes on. The 
maintainability option is pretty much moot since there are stable 
companies with histories that support it.

Plus the coder that contributes to such projects gets to see his name 
"in lights", in credits. It puts the technical person, or other 
contributor, closer to the end user in a sense...

License-free application with with license-free code, plus reliable and 
proven maintenance support infrastructure, is unbeatable in the long 
run. It's the really long run, and the only real possible hurdle in my 
opinion is political.

--aec

> open source = software is given away for free. support is provided
>                  by the community, often informally.  source code is
>                  included, and you are allowed to make changes and
>                  redistribute it, provided the original author is
>                  given due credit.  Sometimes restrictions are added
>                  requiring your distributions to include source code,
>                  and/or only distribute with other open source software.
>
>                  Advocates say that open source protects your freedom,
>                  because if the original author drops support, the
>                  community has both the source code, and the legal right
>                  to change and redistribute it. (And thus you can now
>                  support it yourself.)  So you aren't at the mercy of
>                  the original provider.
>