The Myth of Free and Open Source Software

The Myth is that open source is cheaper. Many of you who read this blog will know that already – many of you won’t.

The original allure of open source is undeniable. “Good quality software that can do the job of my current applications for little or no cost!? What a deal!” However unless you are a consumer (end user) who saves on a Microsoft Office license by choosing to use OpenOffice.org, or steers clear of Photoshop by choosing Gimp (provided of course you have the skills to adapt), chances are open source solutions will cost you about the same as proprietary alternatives. Especially in the corporate environment.

But the question is not what you’re saving – it seems you’ll be in for a wad of cash using either option in the corporate environment – the question is where you’re parking that sweaty green wad. As Dan Farber puts it in a recent post, where proprietary software costs often link you to a monolithic Fortune 500 player, open source costs can be directed at hiring the most talented inhouse developers and engineers to optimise the solution for your organisation.

Practical example – pay R 150 000 on MS Office licenses for a year to cover your SMME’s basic needs, or hire a human being to install and optimise an OpenOffice distribution, coupled with a bit of training for those who find it difficult to migrate. Both options have their pro’s and con’s.

Rafiq has spotted one such opportunity for FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) developers in Cape Town. Read about it here…

  • http://www.magazine.co.za/collective/blog.nsf Tania

    I agree: Open Source is cheaper AND more expensive. MCSEs are a dime a dozen. Linux Administrators are not. So the cost of labour for some Open Source related services is really very high. On the other hand (and I don’t know to what degree this has changed in later versions, because we gave up MS servers years ago), once your Linux server is up and is configured to come up nicely again after power failures, you’re pretty much OK. Windows servers (at least, th eones we used to have) go down more often.

    Here’s where things get cheaper: I have been using OpenOffice Writer to put together some documents. And this after I actually acquired commercial document-putting-together software (Corel Ventura) and found that it was hopeless in the manner in which it deals with tables. (And Ventura only has XML import, not export.) In some ways Writer is a pain — this is partly due to my familiarity with Lotus WordPro, which makes me crave the buttons and features I already know (you mentioned the cost of re-training). In other ways, it is a cost-saver, because it is the only program of its kind which can actually do word processing and page layout and long document management and data exchange, AND which has a proper system for reporting bugs and for actually getting a response from the people to whom you report the bugs. The joy of feeling that you’re being heard is priceless.