[LAU] OT Rant: When will people stop comparing Windows/Linux apps?

Arnold Krille arnold at arnoldarts.de
Tue Jul 13 17:09:55 UTC 2010


Hi,

On Tuesday 13 July 2010 17:19:11 Ng Oon-Ee wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-07-13 at 10:05 -0400, drew Roberts wrote:
> > On Sunday 11 July 2010 10:22:38 Ng Oon-Ee wrote:
> > > Most people have ROI on their minds. If spending all this time learning
> > > Linux and this new app is just going to bring me to the same level of
> > > functionality that I already have, why bother?
> > Because your Freedom matters?
> 
> So does bottomline.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I've made that switch, and freedom does matter. Were
> I making a living out of this stuff, those additional weeks cost real
> money. Making consumer choices on the basis of freedom is a luxury, not
> a right. Some do not have the option to.

But regardless what new software you use, you always have a time till you have 
learned how to use it. So that "time = money" is the same. Only with some 
software you have to pay additional fees to actually get the software, with 
others you dont. With some software you pay fees to get the bugs fixed, with 
some you don't. With some you pay an additional fee to even get word-
processing installed, with some you don't.

The question of "security" is several questions:
- Security in case of break-ins and viruses, well the speed of corporate 
vendors fixing their issues speeks for itself.
- Security in the case of "is still there to give support in five years", look 
at the pace of software development. While the vendor might still be in 
business, the original programmer is probably long gone to another firm that 
pays more. The result is no support for you and additional fees to get the 
newer version that is nether backward compatible nor does it have less bugs.

And there is a type of security the closed source world is not giving you: 
With open source you can still modify and fix the apps long after the vendor 
went out of business and the original author got caught up in legal trouble or 
is caught up be the beautiful ladies in Hawaii.

The freedom of choice and the bottomline do not contradict each other. 
Actually more and more firms realize that the freedom of choice improves your 
ROI and bottom-line.

Have fun,

Arnold
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