"I have used closed source and proprietary products and found
them unwieldy, impossible to troubleshoot"
Recently I troubleshot a problem with my AOLServer install where I
was able to modify the AOLServer source code and track the problem
down in one weekend. Without the source code available I just have
to continually guess my next move.
"The money expended results in a savings down the road and
products that do not go away if you are suddenly strapped for cash."
The new licensing as a subscription schemes mean that if your
business is depressed at the time your subscription time ends you
could very well see your software disappear.
"Programmers can complete your in-house projects much faster by
taking an open source and free project that fits 90% of your
requirements and customize it the final amount and fulfill your
needs with a higher quality product in a much shorter period of
time."
I've worked at several jobs that, instead of using open source,
built in-house projects from the ground up. Some of these projects
dragged on for years but now I could just go to
http://www.freshmeat.net and pick a good-match project, program a
few features, and have the project finished in a couple of
months.
"Help desk personnel can troubleshoot and fix problems remotely
easily. Unix-like open source operating systems are built such that
anything that can be done sitting in front of the computer can be
done by the help desk person at their desk."
Troubleshooting a GUI app when users are on the same network.
xhost +user.with.problem
ssh user.with.problem
export DISPLAY=help.desk:0
gui_app
... troubleshoot here
"In contract the number 2 web server, a closed source product,
has been riddled with security holes and is very expensive to
implement."
Thanks for pointing out the typo.
IIS requires a minimum of a 10 user NT or 2000 workstation license
to start. That's at least $250 U.S. and you are limited to 10
connections, not 10 users (1 user with a page that uses 11 frames
will see a "Too many users" error). A real server license costs
more and IIS cannot be installed without it.
