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Vanilla 1.1.9 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.
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- CommentAuthordmitryseliv
- CommentTimeApr 24th 2006
The concept of Open Source software is great and widely used our day.
But sometimes I’m asking myself what is real agenda behind Open Source.
For instance take Oscommerce or Zencart both great applications and used by many e-commerce websites but what a pain to customize the templates and make it look exactly like you want. I like Zencart little bit better then Oscommerce but it still inherited wacky template system. Why exactly they make it so hard in a first place remains open question.
But right now some companies offer modified templates that looks more professional for about $175 and additional customization services.
This is where my concern appears. Is it really FREE?
The same with Unix FreeBSD/ Linux again for regular user it pretty much a hell to setup and install on this operation systems but at the same time they offer Red Hat Linux which is easy to install and use more like a windows.
I just wonder what you guys think about it. Does anybody have second thoughts about it? -
Is it really FREE? No! It is not!
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Open Source does not equal free. What makes you think that? Sure Open Source applications are free but customized versions and support aren't. How do you think Red Hat makes money? The arguement has long been there is a successful business model to be found in Open Source and closed source systems just create a locked in system of support and reliance which is a unhealthy business model in that your companies future is reliant on the software vendor's company. The benefit of Open Source isn't free stuff its the lack of reliance on just one vendor (in theory).
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- CommentAuthordmitryseliv
- CommentTimeApr 24th 2006
Yes the theory sound great but again my problem with Open Source that small group of people benifit from contributions of many and take advantage of it.
Cheers, DS -
Is that not how business works? I know Ballmer called Open Source akin to Communism (I think it was him, if it wasn't it should have been him) but you didn't believe him did you? Open Source is just as capitalistic as the alternatives no matter what Microsoft may say.. the difference is you can see the code that makes it go and a million little eyes can have a look anytime.
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- CommentAuthordmitryseliv
- CommentTimeApr 24th 2006
I see you point that many people see code but what is the point if it's not readable and it doesn't have enough documentation that come along with. In my experience Open Source software never has enough information how to use it or how the core was build and what is the login behind it.
Best, DS -
"open source" means you can have the source code to something and modify it if you like. That does not equal "free" as in "no money", though in many cases it does. Plus, because it's open, if you don't like the "goofy templating", feel free to fix it, because you are allowed to.
The value of "free as in no money" open source software is that it lowers the barrier to entry. Let's be honest, how many people here laid out $600 for their first copy of photoshop, just so they could learn it. Okay ... how many people pirated their first copy of photoshop "so they could learn it".
The value of open source software (the no money kind) is that you you don't have to engage in a criminal act to lay your hands on something like apache or php or ruby or whatever ... just so you can learn it.
I'll get behind that agenda. -
- CommentAuthordmitryseliv
- CommentTimeApr 25th 2006
I know what Open Source means but how you can modify it if code is really hard to understand. As far I concern it waste of time. Yes contribution of many helps but when half of them are don't know what they doing this is where wacky code and bad programming get born. And latter somebody else changing the code on his taste making it even worse.
Cheers, DS
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