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Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?
Subject:Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered? From:Rachel Rawlings <rachel -at- scrivovivo -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:30:42 -0400
Wanda Phillips wrote:
>I know that in a number of the companies I've worked for, open source
>is not considered because there is the fear that without a company
>behind it, there won't be support, nobody to buy a contract from, and
>no way for IS/IT and the accountants to feel happy and confident.
>
>
This is what I've mostly encountered. Management often wants
"industry-standard" tools, some with industry-standard headaches, at
least on the surface. If you have any real content-related position,
then they rarely care whether you use OpenOffice or gcc so long as you
meet your deliverable schedule. Human resources people also have a
tendency to propagate the closed-source environment, because unless a
position requirement specifically demands AbiWord, Gnumeric, or OO.o
Impress, they'll default to the Microsoft Office apps in the required
skills stated for a position.
>Also, many of the companies I work for are software producers,
>therefore unlikely to promote non-corporate software production/sales.
>
>
To promote to their customers, perhaps. But the number of commercial
software companies using open source tools is extremely high; I'd
venture to say it's second only to the ISP market. And I can imagine
that the only thing less appetizing to a software developer than using
an open source package would be paying for a rival's.
>Where I am now, the story is simply that, increasingly, we just have
>to wait until it's caught on in Europe, then the mother-ship will
>direct us to use it (whether we want to or not <WryG>).
>
The top-down management giveth to closed-source, and it's still up to
top-down management to take it away. <grin />
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