Re: FyRE, I'm Curious About You Too...

From: FyRE (FyRE_at_toktik.demon.ku.oc.x)
Date: 12/27/03

  • Next message: Joe Dunning: "Re: Blake Stowell said Linux ABI is not infringing!" 
    Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 06:02:45 +0000

    On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:52:26 +0000 (UTC), Tony Lawrence
    <apl@shell01.TheWorld.com> wrote:

    >FyRE <FyRE@toktik.demon.ku.oc.x> wrote:
    >>That experience polarized my opinion of proprietary OS' so much that I
    >>decided to make every effort to encourage the use of open source when
    >
    >In other words, you have a political opinion that open source is
    >better for the world than closed source. I don't necessarily
    >disagree, but that is an OPINION, and one that can be argued
    >against on a number of points.

    Please don't use the "p" word. There's enough effluent flowing from
    Darl and his merry band without adding to it. I'd say my opinion has
    been shaped by personal experience of the problems proprietory
    software brings. Chaining yourself to a single vendor; having crucial
    parts of your business held ransom by a single company is madness.
    Time and again I've encountered companies paying absolutely ridiculous
    amounts of money for pretty pedestrian, in some cases just plain bad
    software for which better, open source alternatives exist. And I do
    mean better. As an example, whilst working on part of a local council
    project to bring home-learning to problem kids I discovered a company
    developing a "group chat" system using java and a proprietory back-end
    costing tens of thousands of pounds and requiring numerous Microsoft
    servers to handle a few thousand clients (text only). The software was
    slow and buggy. An obvious, and free alternative was simply to use IRC
    on a closed network; which they implemented, costing them zero and
    working far better than the java software.

    >You certainly have a right to your opinion, just as we have rights to
    >ours. MY opinion is that I do what the customer wants. If they
    >want to dump SCO, I'll help them. If they want to keep it, I'll
    >help with that. I do offer my own advice and opinion if asked,
    >or even unasked if it seems appropriate given the situation, but
    >I don't get up on a high horse and insist that it is my way or no way.

    I don't insist upon OS software when it's not appropriate. I just
    don't help with anything else. I certainly wouldn't help to install
    and configure a SCO product, even if they wrote decent software. It's
    a dead-end product, and I'd feel compelled to explain exactly why I
    believe that (throwing in Darl's comedic press briefings would no
    doubt add plenty of weight to my case). Hell, I'd even recommend MS
    over SCO - they're probably even worse scum than SCO, but they do have
    a future. 

    -- 
FyRE < "War: The way Americans learn geography" >
  • Next message: Joe Dunning: "Re: Blake Stowell said Linux ABI is not infringing!"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: FyRE, Im Curious About You Too...
      ... you have a political opinion that open source is ... >software for which better, open source alternatives exist. ... >and configure a SCO product, even if they wrote decent software. ... I advise my customers to be aware of available alternatives, ...
      (comp.unix.sco.misc)
    • Re: Future of Dolphin revisited
      ... I'm a strong advocate to the open source software and I like its principles and strongly dislike the Microsoft policies, but I understand perfectly that a small company as OA may not have option. ... I'm really grateful to Andy by his help to me when I started with Dolphin. ... In my personal opinion, another big concern is precisely Microsoft, and their position respect the not Microsoft development tools. ...
      (comp.lang.smalltalk.dolphin)
    • Re: The _REAL_ media center
      ... >I have no doubt that some of the Linux PVRs are indeed useful. ... >off trying out the Open Source alternatives first. ... in my opinion: Media Center ... and that is in my opinion unique to XP ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
    • Re: HP will be migrating 15,000 desktops -- An Opinion only posting -
      ... Now a bit of "opinion only": ... Some one tried to patent the human genome. ... This is what is happening for open source: its time has come, ... It is even included with this month's "Linux Format" issue. ...
      (alt.os.linux.suse)
    • Re: How to add two 3c905-tx cards?
      ... Although SCO ... The fact they've been contributing to open source projects, ... The second statement is far closer to the truth than you probably like ... entitled to my opinion, no matter what happens in your country... ...
      (comp.unix.sco.misc)