September 08, 2003
Good Software vs Bad
I was talking to a colleague today about the general suspicion of open source software around these parts. We agreed that the open vs proprietary discussion is missing the point a little. What we want, we both agreed, is good software.
It doesn't matter if I've paid thousands of pounds/dollars/euros/etc for my database or very little indeed, what I want is something that works.
To criticise all open source software as badly documented is to forget that the documentation you get with pay for software usually artfully excludes mention of things that don't work - don't forget that they are features, not bugs - and that paid for support is measured primarily by the number of cases closed, quality of service often comes a very poor second.
Still, some documentation and support is better than none. Although thanks to newsgroups, mailing lists and, increasingly, blogs good quality information about almost any piece of software abounds on the internet.
We agreed that there is good software and there is bad software. Unsurprisingly we would rather work with the good and see the bad perish.
Posted by Andy Todd at September 08, 2003 04:41 PM