[Ilugc] Is the proprietary camp winning ?
- From: prem@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Prem Kurian Philip)
- Date: Sat Oct 14 12:48:28 2006
From: Kenneth Gonsalves <lawgon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Ilugc] Is the proprietary camp winning ?
two points to be noted here:
1. a view has been expressed that foss and proprietary can co-exist -
yin and yang. This is not so. Good and evil can never co-exist.
Either good must prevail or evil must prevail. Yin and yang or
coexistence can be something like FOSS and OSS or Gnome and Kde. It
is undisputed that the foss method of software development through
openeness, sharing, code re-use, non-duplication of code etc etc is
the best method of software development. So why is this method not
universally used? Only one reason - fear of the proprietary people
stealing the code. In short, the very existence of prop software
tends to stifle and inhibit the growth of a healthy programming
method/environment.
2. So if all code was free and shared, wouldnt a large number of
software companies go out of business? wouldnt the programmers be
starving on the streets? This same argument has been used throughout
history to resist change. When the automobile came, did all the horse
carriage owners, and everyone concerned in the horse drawn transport
industry go out of business? Or did they adapt and change their
business model? When autos were introduced in chennai in around 1980,
did the taxis go out of business? Computerisation of banks was
resisted saying that bank employees would lose their jobs. Have they?
or are there more bank jobs now. Sure, most software companies will
have to change their business model or perish. They will change and
be better for the change.
Dear Kg,
The points you raise are interesting. Thanks for posting them.
However, I do disagree with you on something - there is no evidence to
indicate that FOSS as the philosophy is inherently superior to proprietary
method of development for all types of software. FOSS has worked very well
for some types of software, but not for all.
If ALL software is going to be produced as FOSS by all software companies
(due to some legislation or due to drastic change of heart), then that
would imply that their competitors also have access to their product
source code and are able to sell the same product after including their
own changes/customization and probably at a price point lower than the
original developer because their cost of producing it is zero except for
the cost of distribution.
So not only does the original developer of the product lose the exclusive
right to sell the software which they spent money producing, but they are
also beaten by their competitor who can easily undercut them on price,
support (the competitor can afford to spend more money on support since
they are not having to spend much money on development), packaging and
documentation (it is less expensive to get documentation/manuals developed
for an existing product than it is to actually develop the product and
hence the competitor can choose to spend money towards that) etc.
The original developer is therefore left in a position of weakness against
the competitor and must compete by one or a combination of the following
methods:
a) Reducing the price - Again, a losing proposition because the competitor
can always sell at an even lower price point.
b) Out-innovating the competitor - Again a game one cannot win because the
competitor will get the new features, bug fixes made to the product and
can apply that to the version of the software which they are selling.
c) Provide support - Not very viable either. Yes, it is true that the
original developer may be able to provide better support since the
original developers of the product work for them, however, if the original
developers are sitting and handling support issues where is the time to
actually develop the product. Also, the competitor can take away any of
the developers by offering them a slightly higher salary.
What this does is this. The original developer will now have to add in new
features, fix bugs quicker than their competitor who is now benefitting
from the work of the first developer. So in essence what happens is that
the original developer is doing all the hardwork and all the competitors
will add just minor changes, but are able to sell the product.
Now, these may not be issues for certain types of software such as ERP
software - since companies which purchase ERP products may require support
/ fixes / updates directly from the original developer. Also, companies
are willing to really pay for support - individual users are not.
So it is my opinion that the FOSS model works for software companies only
when the size of the product is very large and it is a very complex piece
of software which requires the support staff / implementor to have
considerable knowhow about the internal workings of the product.
But for ordinary desktop applications, utility software etc which are not
very complete, it only makes sense for individual programmers, or
amorphous teams of programmers to develop them using FOSS philosophy and
notfor a software company.
Another thing - if FOSS is the predominant philosophy of development, the
company making the sofware will have to really reduce the cost of
development to remain competitive with others who can just take down the
code and sell them. In a software company, the primary component of cost
is employee salaries. Conclude what you will from that :)
Regards,
PK
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