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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Open Source is great for corporations... [WebTech]

I vaguely remember the discussion with John Zipperer that led to his item in Internet World this month. Sadly, I think the way the quotes are assembled there doesn't do justice to my views. When I said

"When it comes to corporate end users, I generally believe they don't need to be getting into open source; they need stuff that works. To the corporate executive, open source has all the same connotations as a free kitten: it sounds great, but it has high maintenance."

I was referring to use of the source code, not the resulting software. As people tend to forget to make the distinction, it sounds like I am not in favour of the corporate use of open source software. The opposite is true. I think the benefits of open source software - better code, better functionality, fewer bugs, greater security, lower costs - are ones every company needs but they don't want to have to hack code to get them. What they need is someone to join the open source community on their behalf, represent and support them, so they can gain the benefits without having to touch the code.

posted at 9:15 PM (UK) | |