Mark Copper wrote:
Economics aside, I am still amazed after all these years at the power
free software has provided to the ordinary person. No university or
corporation needed; just read and ask questions. Cool.
And in what way does a GOOD closed-source software vendor break that?
I've worked with plenty of closed-source applications and OS's over the
years who's creators encouraged reading their excellent documentation
and asking questions, and answered them. MS isn't one of them, but they
are out there.
It's not just an "open-source" phenomenon. It's a Customer Service and
QUALITY phenomenon.
Start using WindRiver, Microware, or Green Hills software and give them
a call with a real programming problem, and see how they respond, for
example.
Even the Solaris team at Sun Microsystems, HP-UX team within HP, and the
AIX team at IBM are all more responsive than MS about things.
Claiming this "transparency" or "power" for the end-user wasn't there
before open-source is disingenuous. Plenty of GREAT closed-source OS
and application vendors out here still. The hype/religious experience
of open-source notwithstanding...
Nate
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