Re: [MLUG] Open Document Format in Minnesota?

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Vern Green wrote:

> > For me, widespread adoption of an open file format is a lot more 
> > important than the success of Open Office.  I think this will do a lot 
> > to encourage competition.
>
> Excuse me for my ignorance, but I have a question.
>
> How does open source encourage competition?

It makes monopolies impossible, for starters.


> Let's assume for a moment that we all get the world we would like to 
> live in. A world where all software is free and you only pay for 
> supporting the product. Then the only competition comes from those that 
> offer support.

Sort of.  People compete to have their product more widely used and 
adopted for many reasons, not just the support contracts.


> While I am sure there are some business opportunities in that area, it 
> is by and large not as lucrative as purchasing the software. Where do 
> developers then make their money? How does innovation take place?

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 15 years, you've seen 
it happen, so you should know the answer to that question.


> Lets put it another way, OpenSource is an interesting notion, but most 
> of the best innovation is coming from the closed source community.

I'm not seeing that.


> Companies like NetApp, Microsoft, Cisco and Apple to name a few, are 
> spending tons of money on R&D to be innovative, that expenditure demands 
> a return on investment that frankly cannot come from the OpenSource 
> community.
>
> I would be interested in hearing thoughts on this.

Well, you can focus on a few individual projects and see that some of the 
very best stuff comes out of companies that spend millions on R&D, sure, 
but look at all of software as a whole.  How much of the best stuff that 
you use is open/free and how much is proprietary?  I can tell you that for 
me there is a mix and some of the very best software, and most innovative 
software is open/free.

Mike

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