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Software - Different Traits for Manufacturing vs Service?

Posted by Cliff on from the determining-what-works-best dept.

tachin asks: "We've all been hearing about software as a service industry as opposed to manufacturing, there are some differences that favour that view, but I wonder if the type of industry affects the fundamental design of a software system. Considering the differences between those two types, are there some software constructs that are appropriate for one type of industry but would be undesirable for the other? As economies everywhere are becoming more service-oriented, what are the main characteristics a software system must provide to work well in such environments?"

1 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Tangible vs. Software by mvdw · · Score: 2, Informative
    Could I take OpenOffice and put it in a box and sell it at Best Buy today?

    The answer is a resounding "yes". The GPL not only does not forbid this, but this is one of the ways that a GPL-based company can make money. Read the FAQ on the GNU site.

    If the question is, "Can I make money doing this?", then the answer is probably also yes, but with a few caveats. The main caveat is that people who buy software for themselves to use on a home level are few and far between - it's much easier to borrow a friend's (no doubt pirated) Office CD, than it is to pay money for Open Office.

    Unfortunately until people realise that pirating software actually perpetuates the software monopoly, this mindset will continue. This mindset will probably still continue regardless of what people realise...

    I use and advocate Linux, but I am not zealous about it. I am more zealous in advocating that people conform to whatever license is associated with whatever software they use, whether it be GPL, BSD or commercial software. Until people start complying with licenses, I don't think linux has much of a chance of gaining mindshare. Case in point: a colleague was showing us all an MP3 he had creating out of splicing some other MP3s together, just as a humourous thing. I asked him what he used, and he said he'd used a commercial software product, that he'd found a crack for and so he'd used that. I asked him why didn't he use Audacity, and he'd never heard of it. The problem here is that the free software doesn't get airplay in major computing mags, so Joe Average computer user doesn't know it exists, and goes for the commercial software he can get a crack for.