Re: HP Stimulus Package

BMay@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Joe,

While I do agree that jumping to a prepackaged Wintel solution can be a bad idea, I would not be so quick to throw open source in with that lot. Do I think you should run your entire business on open source? Probably not, but it most certainly has its place.

At least right now, Windows has its place, although that place is steadily diminishing, at least for me personally. In fact, if RDi-SOA were to run on Linux, I'd be very tempted to move entirely but alas, that's not the case today (and no, I don't want to run a Windows VM inside of Linux just to say I'm off of Windows).

And do remember the second word in open source: SOURCE. You have the source for the application. If you want that semi-custom application to fit your business needs, then customize it. Want to interface the data to your existing RPG apps? The DB2 Storage Engine for MySQL will solve that problem when it is released in the very near future.

Agreed. The primary downside to this is that you have to learn a new language. Now, if you're Java literate and your open source is Java, then that's not necessarily a huge investment. On the other hand, if you're like me and you attempt to unravel the joy that is Python, for example, it's a rather large hurdle.

Another issue is that I really like procedural code for business logic, and often the stuff you get from open source is either OO (by definition in the case of Java) or quasi-OO (because PHP programmers want to use the nifty cool tools). Don't get me wrong; I love open source for things I wouldn't code myself; I'm in no hurry to rewrite Eclipse anytime soon, or Firefox or any of the other tools I use every day. But to say that open source has source is technically true but in some cases a little misleading.

The MySQL/DB2 relationship is interesting. I'm actually pretty ticked off that DB2 Storage Engine was supposed to be here some time ago and I really, really wanted to write about it. But I'll definitely give it a whack or two when I get a chance.

Joe