Re: Shareware on the i - Need some opinions....

Most participants in open source software also make the point that the advantages are not just theoretical, at this point they're practical and they've been proven, at least for quite a few different applications. Linux, Firefox, Open Office, Apache, PHP, Perl, the list goes on. The maintainability option is pretty much moot since there are stable companies with histories that support it.

Plus the coder that contributes to such projects gets to see his name "in lights", in credits. It puts the technical person, or other contributor, closer to the end user in a sense...

License-free application with with license-free code, plus reliable and proven maintenance support infrastructure, is unbeatable in the long run. It's the really long run, and the only real possible hurdle in my opinion is political.

--aec

open source = software is given away for free. support is provided
by the community, often informally. source code is
included, and you are allowed to make changes and
redistribute it, provided the original author is
given due credit. Sometimes restrictions are added
requiring your distributions to include source code,
and/or only distribute with other open source software.

Advocates say that open source protects your freedom,
because if the original author drops support, the
community has both the source code, and the legal right
to change and redistribute it. (And thus you can now
support it yourself.) So you aren't at the mercy of
the original provider.