Derrin Kent

One of the major arguments I hear against the adoption of Open Source Software is that no-one can be held accountable if the software goes wrong.

These are the arguments I usually counter this with:

• If it goes wrong, its wiser to fix the problem than sue the supplier. Surely you would rather try to fix the problem than engage in court proceedings?  If you have caused the problem yourself a proprietary vendor will probably charge you more for the fix than a freelance open source programmer ever would.  If it the problem is in the software itself, the open source community are far more likely to fix the problem more quickly than the proprietary vendor, anyway.
• You’re less likely to suffer if things go wrong with Open Source Code:  If the software you’re using is flawed, the proprietary supplier is likely to go bust:  leaving you with your data trapped in a proprietary format which you can no longer use.   An Open Source project’s source code will always be publicly available.  The software CANNOT disappear even in the event that it ceases to be supported.  I only recommend well-supported community projects because I then KNOW there will be sustained support into the future - too many people are using the software for it to cease to be supported.
• How clever have you been with your EULA?   Proprietary software vendors invariably employ clever lawyers to draw up the End-User Licence Agreement which they will have gotten you to sign.  Have you checked to see if you CAN sue your supplier if the software goes wrong?  You have very probably signed away your right to do so.

If you want to just experiment with some of the Open Source options availabel, do please get in touch…

Licence fees aren’t that expensive, are they?

I’ve met a fair few people who say: “Well, we are only paying an educational licence, so we get our proprietary software very cheaply.”

But there is a greater cost to software than your licence fees. With open source software you can:

• reduce your administrative overheads: you don’t need to record which seperate copies are licenced to which seperate users. This can see the end of one cumbersome end-of-financial-year task.
• get free upgrades forever: there is no sting in the purchasing tail… if you move over to an open source project, your software will be free forever. There is no need to factor in upgrade/security upgrade costs into your accounts.
• reduce your technical support fees: Open Source Software, due to its very nature, is generally more stable, and more bug free, than its proprietary counterparts. Also the software applications I recommend to organisations are those which have a thriving user-community behind them - members of which are always more than happy to voluntarily help each other out with problems via forums and IRC channels.

You know it makes sense…

OpenOffice:

• http://www.openoffice.org/

is neat, very neat. It comes cost free (for now and futurity - free future upgrades) and already matches Microsoft’s rather more expensive offer in terms of its inherent quality.

Download it here:

• http://download.openoffice.org/2.3.0/index.html

BUT……

Despite concerted efforts to reverse engineer for compatibility, OpenOffice texts, spreadsheets and presentations are not always smoothly compatible with Microsoft Office.

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I like to give this metaphor to explain why I advocate the adoption of Open Source Software as good business sense.

Imagine you were looking for a house to live in. You har about three houses on offer which are all pretty much the same.

For each house you will have the key to the door and will be able to keep your personal contents safe and secure on the inside - no difference there, your contents will belong to you and you alone.

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