[TriLUG] Open Source Propaganda

[Dane Miller]

Mark Freeze wrote:
> Does anyone have any good sources for the 'theory behind' open source,
> or open source practices?

Here's my favorite quote about Linux and FOSS.  Sums up why I use it to
run my network:

<quote>
...for all its flaws, the open-source model has powerful advantages. The
deepest and also most interesting of these advantages is that, to put it
grossly, open source takes the bullshit out of software. It severely
limits the possibility of proprietary "lock-in"--where users become
hostage to the software vendors whose products they buy--and therefore
eliminates incentives for vendors to employ the many tricks they
traditionally use on each other and on their customers. The transparency
inherent in the open-source model also limits secrecy and makes it
harder to avoid accountability for shoddy work. People write code
differently when they know the world is looking at it. Similarly,
software companies behave differently when they know that customers who
don't like a product can fix it themselves or switch to another
provider. On the available evidence, it appears that the secrecy and
maneuvering associated with the traditional proprietary software
business generate enormous costs, inefficiencies, and resentment.
Presented with an alternative, many people will leap at it.
</quote>

TechnologyReview.com
How Linux Could Overthrow Microsoft
By Charles Ferguson June 2005
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/06/issue/feature_linux.asp


Dane
-- 
Dane Miller
Technology Coordinator
Olney Friends School
Barnesville, Ohio