[thechat] open source problems

ashok at magicalkenya.com ashok at magicalkenya.com
Tue May 21 03:05:01 CDT 2002


this might seem a bit OT for the chat , - but it also seemed OT on the list
, so I applied the 2nd rule...

I read a lot of development related stuff on the list related to OSS  (open
source s.w.)
- specifically stuff like php ,mysql , postgres and to some extent specific
application products like zope -

Are there any stats of *commercial* usage of these products in comparison
to  non-OSS-products like asp , sql server , oracle etc.  ? ( i do get a
fair bit of client-server development work)

I found things like the php stats usage page misleading
(http://www.php.net/usage.php) as it  is a macro level statistic doesnt
distinguish between *commercial* and non-commercial sites  (developer ,
personal etc. )

Personally i have found it very difficult in my market in convincing people
to seriously look at open source software -
- surprising considering  this is a typical 3rd world marketplace of
not-so-high-spending-budgets.  most people look at OSS with suspicion (why
doesnt it cost me money ??? where is the support ?? do they have local
presence ??) and would rather spend a lot more money on buying microsoft or
oracle licenses...!

which has meant that OSS based solutions are extremely rare here
...(highest usage is probably among ISPs that too some of the smaller ones
, the big ISPs like africaonline are mostly on SUN / IBM )

So most of the time i end up not consider anything OSS when making a
proposal as there is a strong possiblity of the proposal  getting thrown
out.

Though honestly - the profit margins would definitely be much much better
with OSS  solutions - since i could charge the customer the same $XXXX (or
a slightly lower price) with an OSS solution , and  transfer all that
commercial license cost into development cost  which means all that extra
license money doesnt go to m$ or oracle but towards better profits at
home :).

I am sure 10-15 years back people in western markets faced similar problems
in pushing OSS ? and i am pretty sure OSS has serious acceptability
problems in other emerging markets...?

--ashok







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