RE: [tlug] Vendor lock-in vs monopoly

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Mazur
> Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 7:36 PM
> 
>
>From this snippet it looks more like he's speaking about software
>*support* rather than the software itself.
>
>If you purchase proprietary software, only one company can give
>support because only that one company has the source code.
>

That is not completely accurate.
Anyone can support a product that they know.  There
are many companies that make money doing just that.

The true lockin comes from interactions between companies
(I know, this is not my idea, but was mentioned in
another email).

The only monopoly-like aspect is that you can only buy
THAT piece of software from that company.  You can in
many cases still find alternatives.  If the company
chooses to use a software, that is the companies choice.

At the moment, MS Office is still the industry standard.
That is slowly changing.  :-P  I think in a few years,
Open Office will have the upper hand (I know, I am being
optimistic).  Until then, many companies are choosing
MS Office.  That is not a monopoly, that is a consumer
choice.  Open Source is all about freedom of choice.  We
need to remember that part of that freedom is the freedom
to choose the software they want to use, even if it is
not the software we like.

My personal choice would be to encourage people to use 
Open Office.  Not because it is free, but because it is
a good package.  The free part is an added bonus.  For the
average end user, the fact that it is open source is no
real concern.  They can use it.  The only time that it
becomes a concern for them, is when the producer of the
software refuses to provide a binary distrobution of the
software.  In which case the average user won't even
concider it as an option.  It is useless to them, because
they can't run a compiler and only have one if someone
else on the machine uses it.

The fact that Open Office does provide binaries for pretty
much every supported operating system is a big plus for them.
:-)

-- 
Ken