Hi John, RE: "The model of open code and software developers essentially working for free, for companies that sell final packaged products, seems like it could bring products to market much faster"
Open code is faster to deploy (from the perspective of a core package, not necessarily from the perspective of a high-volume total solution - the speed of the later depends upon several factors).
Off the top of my head... a small example: you can offload sys driver development and compatibility issues of brand X hardware or software, to the world. Many time intensive quality issues are owned & offloaded onto the development world as a whole, not the responsibility (and headache in cost & time) of one software house. Makes deployment fast (no holding a release back to get support for xyz hardware or software, can just ship it, someone else's responsibility, and [I am not advocating the following:] if someone complains, just say, "hey, this is open code, get with the program and go find yourself a fix elsewhere."). It does seem to put more of a burden on the IT guy/gal re: compatibility, but a lot of IT guys/gals like control of their own destiny, if they are a truly independent sort, which many high-tech folks are. Possible hidden labor costs. Possible issues with total solution, and quality (in the case of high-volume deployment of Total Solutions to a mix of folks who may not want to do it on their own), but excels at get-the-core-out-quickly.
Amy J |
