Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?

Subject: Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 22:28:38 -0700


----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Byfield

Another poster complains that the features in open source software are
added by the whims of developers, not users' needs. There's some truth
in this comment, but, since he then goes on to say that proprietary
software has the same problem -- which is equally true -- it is negated
as a reason for not using open source software. Yet he does not seem to
be abandoning proprietary software for the same reason.

Apparently I wasn't clear on this point. In any situation in which I have
the option to choose my own software, I go first to shareware, where most programs are created by a single author who has designed them to do one particular thing that I need to do. Some of these folks make their source codes available to all, so to that extent I have abandoned proprietary software for open source, but mostly I have really tried to abandon the products of committees and "communities" in favor of those of individuals.

Otherwise, I use what tools my company and the current trends in our
field set as standards, since I see no point in trying to push something else through the system if it doesn't offer me any advantage over what IT is willing to install and support for me. My objective with regard to
tools is to spend as little time fooling with them as possible so I can
concentrate on getting our actual work done.

As for your other questions, my intellectual curiosity lies as far from my work as I can put it. Books. Art. Music. Anything. We learn
more about our jobs, help our employer, make ourselves more
employable, etc., by developing better knowledge of our products
and customers, not by frittering away our time on tools. I could
say something about what we do for developing nations, but we'd
probably end up in a discussion on offshoring.

Gene Kim-Eng


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