What happens when a proprietary software company dies?
Friday, November 14th, 2003There are many reasons why I promote Open Source Software in preference to commercial packages.
Perhaps the most compelling reason is best highlighted by a recent article that appeared on NewsForge regarding the demise of a commercial software company called AppGen.
I looked at AppGen (an accounting system) several years ago and although it had some good press and appeared to be of a high quality the entry costs were high and the benefits just weren’t there for the smaller software developer let alone the smaller SME.
Now AppGen are gone leaving a user-base and reseller network floundering with few options. Bugs wont be fixed and there wont be any upgrades. The reseller network, many of whome have based their businesses on AppGen products and related services, will need to restructure. The end-users, whose day to day operations rely on the software, will need to look for an alternative suitable product, migrate their data and learn a new package all over again. It’s anyones guess what the total cost of this will be and some may not survive.
Read the full story courtesy of newsforge.com.
If this story doesn’t help make the case for Open Source software then I give up!
Had AppGen published thier software under an Open Source licence the resellers and end-users would have been protected.
More reasons why I promote Open Source Software:-
1. More cost effective.
2. No vendor lock in.
3. Generally of a higher quality.
4. Based on open standards.
5. Comes with source code so you can fix what’s broke.
6. Active user community for ongoing support.
