[Freegis-list] Hidden costs of Open Source software

[Jan-Oliver Wagner]

On Wed, Jul 28, 2004 at 02:39:03PM -0700, Jerry Isdale wrote:
> Apparently the US Govt. Office of Mangement and Budget released a memo 
> on July 1 warning CIOs about hidden costs when acquiring Open Source 
> software (vs. commercial software which would never have hidden costs - 
> smirk).   You can read the 1 pg memo at 
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy04/m04-16.html
> 
> The GeoReport's GeoOpinion had a survey last week asking whether people 
> were using open-source GIS software. (Georeport is a newsletter for 
> http://www.geoplace.com/ which is tied to the magazine GeoWorld). 
> Results of the pool show 38% said yes, and 62% no. This week they are 
> asking: If you currently use open-source GIS software, have you found 
> hidden costs to be a burden? If you don't use open-source GIS software, 
> do potential hidden costs pose a barrier?
> You can answer the survey at 
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy04/m04-16.html

the question is designed to let Free Software look bad.
"Hidden Costs" is not a objective measure since most
companies introducing Free Software think it is gratis (because
the download it from Internet). Therefore any costs you then
get are sort of hidden.

Most people who say they have discovered "hidden costs"
have not really understood the concept of commercial Free Software
or selected a bad service provider. The latter could happen with
any type of software, of course.
A good service provider for commercial Free Software explains how
this all works and thus delivers a fully transparent understanding.
There can't be anything _hidden_! Of course, _unexpected_ things can happen -
but that is a different story.

-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

Intevation GmbH                      http://intevation.de/
FreeGIS                                http://freegis.org/