[ale] open source wars at DOD

[Joseph A Knapka]

Pete Hardie wrote:
> 
> Joseph A Knapka wrote:
> >
> > That is entirely dependent upon the licensing terms under which
> > the software is released. "Open-source" != "Free software".
> > Many open-source products are free for individual or educational
> > use, but require payment to the developer for commercial
> > use. MySQL is a good example.
> 
> For informational purposes, how rapidly are fixes available for
> bugs found in MySQL, and hopw are they priced for a commercial user?

I don't know about the speed of bug fixes. Of course,
with the source in hand one can always fix critical
bugs oneself, if necessary. The commercial licensing
fee (which, incidentally, is a pittance compared to
those of, say, Oracle or Sybase) only buys you the right
to use the code in a commercial product, IIUC; however,
support contracts are available on a flat-fee
annual basis.

I'm pretty sure that the commercial licensing fee for MySQL
is a one-time deal. Once you've paid it, you can upgrade
the software as necessary. I may be wrong though; I don't
use MySQL in any application that requires me to pay for it.

In general, with a closed-source product, any money
you pay for support puts you in a big queue with all
the other people who are waiting for support, and
you're at the mercy of a small number of developers
who actually have access to the code and, for all
practical purposes, control which bugs get fixed and
in what order.

With an open-source product, on the other hand, you
can arrange your own support, by hiring a
person to fill that role, or by retaining a local
consultant. Given that you're paying minimally
for the software itself, I wouldn't expect this
to be any more expensive overall than buying
product+support from a closed-source vendor.
But by going with open source and self-support, you
get support when you need it, and your problem is
guaranteed to be at the top of the heap. IOW, open
source allows support, as well as development, to
be parallelized.

Cheers,

-- Joe
   "Thanks to Microsoft, I am now blind in both eyes. They have
    rolled back in my head so many times this week that they
    are apparently stuck there now."
      - Jonathan Rickman, regarding M$ anti-open-source PR.

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.