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"Software development is not a zero-sum game --- with open source, everyone wins." "Sounds to me like the vendor is in a win-win situation here, and the client is the (money) loser. The vendor releases buggy code, the customer (your client) pays a contractor (you) to fix it, you tell the vendor how to fix it, he includes the fix in his next release. Does he pay anyone for doing his debugging for him? I would think the client deserves some consideration in that case." I see what you're saying, but you've missed one crucial aspect here: the customer wins by having the opportunity to fix bugs. The classic counterpoint here is Microsoft --- find a bug in Excel, and try to get it fixed. At least with (say) JDE or SAP, you have the source code to hand, and if you _can_ find and fix the bug, then it's one less bug for you to worry about. I speak from experience: I have fixed bugs in JDE that I would have had to simply grit my teeth and put up with, had I not the source code. If closing the source were truly an incentive for the vendor to release less buggy code, then it would indeed be a powerful argument for closed source software. Unfortunately, experience dictates that this does not happen in reality. The least buggy systems on the market today are open-source --- when was the last time a bug was found in Emacs? In short, don't think of the customers as being burdened with the task of debugging flawed software; rather the customers are empowered to improve the software as they see fit. ____________ Paul Cunnane Mattel Interactive +--- | This is the RPG/400 Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to RPG400-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to RPG400-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to RPG400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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