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| Subject: | GISList: OSS really ? |
| Date: |
01/07/2003 11:20:56 AM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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I changed the thread subject, sorry.
There is nothing "scientific" about what you call "OSS" (the telecom
industry has Operational Support Systems also called OSS). Science is
controlled, methodical, repeatable, downright boring after the initial
"discovery" of something new. What you describe as OSS appears chaotic,
random, and not something many smart businesses will bank their existence
on. The fact that there is a form of "copyright" protection is no
protection at all in a majority of the world where piracy is bigger business
than legitimate software sales. There was on old joke, not far from the
truth, about the Asia Pacific region about a major software vendor of
CAD/GIS software: "A million licenses sold, 10 million in use". How is this
solved by OSS ? Further, I believe that one of the major obstacles to real
adoption of OSS is it's very nature: there is no control and it's up to
users to wade through the technical differences (some subtle some
extraordinary) or, worse yet, depend on "certified" consultants for
spoon-feeding (this is just simply shifting the burden from being owned by
the ISV to the consultant). There are less demonstrable liabilities for
consultants however than there are for ISVs, compounding the user's ability
to leverage their dollars.=20=20
In OSS, there is little if any "control" over versioning of applications
(maybe so in the actual source code) but who is willing to implement a
system that costs more than their paycheck without some real reassurance
that the next version will not completely mangle everything? We're not just
talking about stand-alone, silo-based systems, this is enterprise or even
internet-based systems. Who's going to ensure backwards and forwards
compatibility? To leave this to the whims of an unorganized collection of
hobbyists pretending to be software experts and product developers is an
expensive distraction and inefficient use of resources IMHO.
Linux has been around for a long time, a lot longer than the dot-com
boom-bust cycle that even made it a possibility to dream about the open
source "revolution". So where is it ? What major organization has
completely gone "Windows-free" (not even GIS organizations or users, but
anyone?) The reasons why not are too numerous to articulate here.=20
Next, in India and China, two-thirds of the global population, there are
many multitudes of qualified software engineers and really, really smart
people. Their two countries would be ripe for OSS because of it's low-cost
(relatively, right? ), but no one really takes it serious there even though
it is something they would like, they recognize the obvious pitfalls and
fatal flaws to the logic of pursuing it. If there were ever a market for
OSS, GIS as well as other industry applications, those two countries would
qualify in the top 3, yet it's virtually non-existent by any measure.
"OSS" is great fodder for MS/PhD programs, but I hope it stays in that
domain.
Regards,
Anthony
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Hankley [mailto:Jeff.Hankley@parsons.com]=20
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 11:30 AM
To: 'gislist@geocomm.com'
Subject: RE: GISList: Compressed Terrain Data
Cameron,
I have the same question after reading this discussion. I think people are
not used to the open source profit model yet, where it is not the software
that makes money, but the support of said software. OSS (Open Source
Software) companies, including Red Hat make their software available for
free download (including the source code), as long as you can figure out how
to use it, and don't need their help, which is probably (and this is a stab
in the dark) less than 25% of users. The money is made when those users want
support. The vendor can then offer several tiers of support based on the
user's needs. There is also, then, the opportunity to develop a
certification for said support to offer to consulting companies, thereby
deriving further profits. It takes a bit of thought to understand why this
model works, but this model also helps keep software prices much more
reasonable. The key here, however, is the source code. In the OSS model,
source code is like a scientific publication, where other scientists
(programmers, developers) are able to read the published findings and
improve upon the theory, therefore facilitating innovation throughout the
industry. The source code is protected under the GPL (Gnu Public License)
which basically says that the user cannot just recompile the source code and
sell the software as their own, and that they must provide the source code
of the software to whomever they give it to. This is a form of copyright
that keeps people from using your work to make money, but allows them to
improve it if they can.
This mode
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