Re: Computer Survey on perceived advantages of Open Source

On 5/12/05, Laurent GUERBY <[email protected]> wrote:
> We all know that 84.56% of statistics are made up but:
> 
> http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1043
> 
> <<
> Key Advantage of Open Source is Not Cost Savings
> Reduced dependence on software vendors appears more important than low
> cost
> Frank Scavo

<snip/>

> So, what is the top advantage of open source?  The leading vote-getter
> was "reduced dependence on software vendors" at 44%

This is interesting; thanks for sending to the list.  

I wonder if these same people shy away from using open source projects
that are controlled by a single vendor (e.g. JBoss, MySQL, etc).  Of
course, the users have the ability to fork the project, but that is
very costly and disruptive.  IMO, users of vendor-run open source
software projects take on more risk (assuming they invest heavily in
integrating the software into the rest of their business) than those
who use closed source software that is built on industry standards.

Cliff Schmidt