Re: How far Open Source has come...

[Abigail-II]

Well, it seems like their decision is mainly motivated by costs. As a customer, I'd rather see my ISP make decisions based on quality.

Abigail

[Aristotle]

Do you think such decisions would be in favour or disfavour of free software?

Makeshifts last the longest.

[phydeauxarff]

I don't think the issue is really that the software is free but rather that open source allows much more flexibility and control for the ISP.

I know that we (I work for a large cable company) have selected perl, mysql, and apache on linux over our previous Solaris/Oracle implementations for a new system I am involved in deploying because it offered us everything we needed, was easy to develop for, and allows us to make changes as we see fit in the future.

With open source we are no longer yoked to a vendor and their interpretation of how we should run our business.

The software licensing costs are trivial in the grand scheme of things, though the lack of these in most open source is certainly a welcome side effect

[Abigail-II]

It depends, see my other posts. In some cases, open source software is as good, or better than non-open source software. Example: Apache. In some cases, open source software isn't as good, for instance, MySQL vs Oracle. And in some cases, there's little open source software available: enterprise backup solutions for instance.

If I pick an ISP or provider of some other service, I'm more interested in the quality of their service, than whether they happen to use open source software or not.

Abigail

[Jenda]

I think comparing MySQL to Oracle is like comaring a pick-up with a truck. They are too different for such comparison to have any meaning without explaining the circumstances.

Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature