Re: OSS (was RE: Green screen - it's time is over/CODE/400 )

Hi Tom, jt,

Actually, it does happen.  I work a lot with SMS's Med Series 4 software,
and they do incorporate fixes and enhancements from their customers on
occasion.

Peter Dow
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 425-0194 voice
909 425-0196 fax


----- Original Message -----
From: <thomas@inorbit.com>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 10:57 PM
Subject: OSS (was RE: Green screen - it's time is over/CODE/400 )


jt:

> What I'm also saying is that when you pay a vendor for a product, there's
no
> reason why that vendor COULDN'T accept patches from their users.  There's
no
> reason users COULDN'T submit patches, for the vendor to co-ordinate.
Don't
> see it happening, though.. I sure gotta admit that.

True, sure. But it's also common that a package is bought (i.e., licensed)
for big $$$ and then many mods are made to customize for the particular
business. This is most often done without the benefit of any source code so
the mods are one of a kind add-ons with little likelihood of actually
affecting product direction. So in addition to paying the license, the cost
of added code still shows up and possibly a greater cost than via OSS with
benefit of original source and possibly a better fit again because of
source.

Tom Liotta



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