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Opposing Open Source?

Posted by Cliff on from the listening-to-the-other-side-for-once dept.

Carl Nasal asks: "For a college class I'm taking, I have to write a research paper. I chose a topic of how open source software affects businesses, focusing on the use of Linux. While doing searches, I have actually found it hard to find opposing views of open source software. Mainly, what I'm looking for, are opinions, articles, looks, and evidence about the drawbacks of using open source software in business. They can either be online or offline, but preferably from reliable sources. (In other words, I'd rather not just have someone's homepage that loves Microsoft and hates Linux.)" The more constructive criticism we get about the drawbacks of Open Source, the better we can address and fix them.

3 of 567 comments (clear)

  1. Consider legal issues by garoush · · Score: 2, Troll

    "Mainly, what I'm looking for, are opinions, articles, looks, and evidence about the drawbacks of using open source software in business."

    I don't have links to share with you, but I can share my experience.

    Almost 2 years ago, in a think-tank setting a bunch of us at a company that I won't name here, refused to use Open Source program/code out of the fear that if anything goes wrong using Open Source program/code, there is no one to "hold responsible" over it. Read that as to "sue" the party.

    Because of this legal issue, we stayed away from Open Source. I know few other companies that I got in contact with share this few.

    However, I must point out that now IBM is supporting Linux, things will change.

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  2. No revenue by LordNimon · · Score: 1, Troll
    Since you can't sell open-source software, it's very difficult to make money developing it. Sure, you could give away the software for free and sell support, but that only works if your software is so hard to use that it NEEDS support. If your software is stable, well-documented, and easy-to-use, why would you pay for a support contract?

    Moderators: please don't mod me down as a troll, because I honestly believe what I wrote. Instead, how about proving me wrong in a reply?

    --
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  3. Re:Your best bet by Julian352 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Did anyone look at the URL above? Both URL's lead to eggforge.com which has nothing to do with this topic. I think this is a shameless plug rather than informative comment.
    MOD PARENT DOWN.