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RE: RE: Open Source or Else

• To: "'andrzej@c...'" <andrzej@c...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: RE: Open Source or Else
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 09:45:08 -0600

True, but I am trying to point out that 
Open Source Or Else is not that interesting 
a dichotomy, and that all small companies are 
not dependent on it to get a good business 
started.  Actually, economics of licenses 
aside, it is a bad idea for small companies 
to go that way exclusively.  Good, bad, or 
indifferent, if it is not on the Windows 
platform, I ignore it and I think that is 
the case for a very large percentage of the 
market that is not in the server business 
or some other area that doesn't mind being 
closer to the metal.  The point is that 
open source is just another option for getting 
a code base, true, one that if you have the 
chops, you can dig deep and fix things, but 
otherwise, it is the price break and performance 
that are attractive.   This is also true 
of CoolEdit, Guitar Pro, $299 studios mics 
and so on.   

Developers and start ups have 
to weigh the advantages of being on The 
Standard Platform (what MS Windows is by 
practical default), or trying to get a price 
break in the operating system or development 
tools, but not having a large market.  That 
is suicide.   What they need is to find a 
niche where their software can provide 
an undeniable advantage in performance 
for a sustainable cost.  Developers for 
CoolEdit, Guitar Pro, Spazz3D and so on 
show how that is possible without ever 
touching the subject of Open Source Or Else.

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrzej Jan Taramina [mailto:andrzej@c...]

> Note, that CoolEdit was once freeware but 
> given the costs is now cheapware. 

But it was never open source, which is a different beast altogether, so 
I'm not sure that it's as relevant an example as it could be.

BTW, I like CE as well.

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