14 Apr
2011
14 Apr
'11
10:34 a.m.
Further, not everyone has the skill (or desire) to
dink with the source when
they run into a problem. There's that whole time = money factor, and
even if I
Actually 'Time' is the main reason I use open-source stuff.
When my tools don't work properly (I am using tools in a very genreal
sense, of course), I normally can't get on with what I want/need to be
doing. I either have to fix the tools, or wait for somebody else to fix them.
If I have an open-source program, there's a very good chance I can fix it
myself.Or at least kludge it 'for the moment' so I can get on with
something. If I don't have the soruce code, then, yes, I can submit a bug
report, and then wait for soemthing to be done about it. And wait. And
wait. I'd rather be fixing the problem myself to be honest, it'll
probably be up and running sooner.
I've contacted the authors of several open-source programs over the
years, and generally get a useful e-mail reply within a day. Yes, I
realise that most, if not all, open-source licenses don't require the
authors to give support, but virtually all authors will. On the otehr
hand, I've never received a useful reply (either by e-mail or telephone)
from the 'technical support' group of any
commercial software house.
-tony