Guardian: open source is a throwback says Jack Schofield

[malcolm]

Why you can't get something for nothing
Jack Schofield Jan 22 2004

[..]

"There are also undoubted benefits from running open source software,
though the financial ones can be small or even negative. Companies are
bound to be tempted by the idea of getting something for nothing .."

"The facility to fix bugs yourself and to modify programs also sounds
attractive. However, fixing bugs is not practical for most companies,
and modifications can be positively dangerous.

If you are really going to do these things, you need to hire several
reliable programmers with kernel-level skills"

"Indeed, the whole progress of commercial computing has been from
expensive hand-written, bug-ridden, company-specific programs to
cheaper but more powerful off-the-shelf packages. From that point of
view, open source is a throwback."

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1127802,00.html