Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?

[Rachel Rawlings <rachel -at- scrivovivo -dot- net>]

Brian Gordon wrote:

> Bruce - I agree with all your points. It is possible a lack of
> familiarity is holding me (and others) back. However, you glossed over
> points made by those concerned about their current and future
> contracts. If I recommend "free" software and it takes a long time to
> learn, or doesn't perform as desired, etc., then no more contracts
> with that company for me. Thus, I go the safe route, at times.

The process in deciding upon when and whether to use an open source
application is not very different from choosing a commercial
application. People in the Linux world also choose applications based
upon functionality, learning curve, and confidence in the development
team. This is why Sourceforge offers metrics telling how many developers
are working on a project and how active it is, and why those with the
best market penetration have fully-scoped websites featuring screen
shots, documentation, and user fora. And the level of honesty in
developers acknowledging flaws in their software is generally higher
than in the commercial sphere; it has to be,. because anyone can look at
the code in CVS.

There are plenty of dogs in open source just as there are in the
shareware and box-on-a-shelf markets. I'd argue that the non-optimal
open source applications are even easier to avoid than in the commercial
world, because there aren't any big marketing campaigns behind them
touting great features but sweeping the flaws under the rug.There are
also many projects that are simply not release-ready (and thus marked
Alpha) but made available so that more programmers, documenters, and
testers can get involved. If a non-developer user wants to test and use
the package, though, it is available freely to them as well; they just
shouldn't complain that there's no installer yet.

In open source the safe route comes from choosing software with a stable
release, an active development team, and a sufficient user base to
generate a healthy learning and support community. Sound familiar?

> We all have only so much time and energy. I do not get paid to
> evaluate and learn new software, for the most part. Therefore,
> learning new stuff means less time for other things that are important
> to me. So, yes, much as I loathe MS Word and would love to switch to
> Open Office, for example, that will have to wait until I have a less
> deadline-pressured project. 

Forgive me for saying that's perfectly reasonable.

> And then I'll have to worry about all those legacy projects in Word,
> and the fact that I'll be creating documents many others may not be
> able to edit.

OpenOffice 1.1.n opens and saves documents in any Word format from 6.0
to present. it's only Word 5 and earlier that don't have legacy
translators yet.


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