The survey shows that, contrary to common perceptions, the appeal of open source software is not primarily its low cost. By a two to one margin, respondents ranked "reduced dependence on software vendors" as the most important advantage that open source delivers.
The results are shown below.
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Jump over to Computer Economics and read this article on what this means for buyers and sellers of enterprise systems.
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4 comments:
I presume that the survey was biased because only people who liked open source software had a desire to respond. Especially considering that there's no contrary choices, like why people dislike open source software.
All open source softare that I've used sucks. Lousy or no documentation, user unfriendly, a big waste of time, and time is money.
This is because it takes a lot of money to develop user friendly interfaces and good documentation. No ones going to do that for free.
Dear Cat. I believe that a "contrary choice" was offered in the survey. It was the last option, "No advantage."
Hmm... how can this be? Independence from vendors? Or is it rather independence from ONE particular vendor?
Vendors are not evil. Monopoly is.
My favorite open source aspect is involvement in communities of practice, and using them to hire talented people. This can happen with vendor-ware, but I prefer the skills and attitudes I find in OS communities, and working together as volunteers gives better insight than resumes or interviews.
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