Sounds like you haven't had much development experience. Thats how programmers around the world code Free Software.
sure..thats how *everyone* codes...you mean to say that a closed source product has the same guys writing and maintaining the software?
no.
The point is, the company has *experts* on that product, and they are paid to just solve problems, which is not guranteed when u contact ur friendly-neighbourhood hacker.
agreed. But the same is not true of every company. I have seen products and services fall-apart due to as experts run for greener pastures.
Anyway... lets get your *closed* software in the picture here. I want someone else to better and maintain it now. Will you as a previous vendor:
- Help me
- Give my new partner the sources
- Even if you do 1. and 2. what will my new partner get
help from the community? No. because the community doesn't know - the software was closed.
again..why the emphasis on sources? As a IT Manager, I'd be more interested in getting the problem solved
than in
whether I have the sources or not.
so how do you solve my partially solved problem without knowing how it was solved partially.
And secondly, do u think
only open source software has communities? I've received fantastic help on some closed source products that I use from communities of users - so whats so special?
If you talking support in terms of click here... do this do that... run this command you'r lucky... you'll always find a community. But if I say this is my application... darn we were using it for so many years... our needs have changed... what do I do now - how many communities can you solicit.
I think your passion for source code is blinding you from the heart of the problem - source code is just not important in some cases!
Simplistically... every problem has a solution... sometimes many solutions.
The point I wanted to make was whether you'd like to pay someone to tie your shoelaces everytime or pay once and learn how to tie it. Again, thats assuming the fellow you hire to tie your lace really knows how to tie it well.
With something as abstract as customised software ensuring that your shoelaces get tied well is difficult. Plus, you also want to avoid vendor lock-in. So how do you deal with such a probem then?
Apply Free Software.
Warm wishes,
Amol Hatwar.