From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-07-22T14:36:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Editor

On Sun, Jul 22, 2007 at 11:01:17AM +0900, Dan Zwell wrote:
> Felix Windt wrote:
> >
> >Any given open source editor may disappear from the market if the 
> >developers decide to no longer work on the project. Of course, you have 
> >the theoretical possibility to pick up the project, but that assumes skill 
> >in the development language, a project tidy enough to be picked up by 
> >somebody else, that you have enough time to work on it etc. - or betting 
> >on the fact that somebody else will continue the work. Once your own 
> >business and money are involved, that's not a bet I'd want to take, but 
> >I'm not a gambling person.
> Not quite the same. With proprietary software, there is the risk that 
> you can no longer acquire it (can't install old versions). If a company 
> decides to stop selling it, you can only get it if you know someone with 
> an install CD. Ever reformat your computer, then realize you don't have 
> your original install CDs? Oops.
> 
> It's the same to a degree with open source software, but the code is 
> much more likely to remain floating around on the web somewhere (because 
> OSS sports legal flotation!).

. . . to say nothing of the fact that a significant investment in a piece
of software goes up in smoke with no recourse if the vendor stops
supporting it, whereas with open source software you at least have the
opportunity to decide whether it's worth the cost to restart development
if the previous developers drop the project, among other things.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);