Open source vs proprietary

All software acquisition is risky. Always consider:

Acquisition cost - initial and ongoing

Training costs - how much re-training is needed?

Support costs - in-house or third party?

Interoperability - what else does it need to work with?

Reliability and security - look at track record

…regardless of whether it is open source or proprietary.

Competing solutions should be evaluated on the same criteria.

Open source pros

A ready made community

Community driven = community serving

No licence costs

No vendor lock in

Infinitely customizable

Investment is typically in training staff rather than a third party - staff development!

Open source cons

Fear of no-one to blame

No vendor jollies

Project folding is more common than vendor folding

Open source may be incompatible with other deployed software

Proprietary software is often more feature rich

Documentation quality is variable

Open source pros and cons

Elena Blanco

2006-05-16T14:16:14