[FOSS] How does one respond to this line of questioning?

[Mark Komarinski]

I see I generated some great discussion. :)

On 04/08/2011 11:58 AM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote:
> Actually, "why should software be any different?" is a good question,
> but you're asking it of the wrong side.
>
> When I buy a car, or a house, or anything else, I don't have to give
> the original builder or owner of the thing an permant (lifelong),
> exclusive monopoly on maintaining it. If I discover a issue with my car
> or house, there exists a free market in which I can choose any plumber,
> electrician, carpenter, painter, or mechanic I like to do work;
> I can have them compete in terms of both price and quality of service--
> and if one of them does shoddy work, fails to meet deadlines, or
> is rude to my wife, otherwise fails to satisfy, I can take my business
> elsewhere.
Perhaps an apartment is a better example then.  You have to pay on a 
periodic basis, have almost no control over the look-and-feel (aside 
from furniture), and the only person you can deal with is the landlord.  
There may be other apartments in the area but they all charge about the 
same rate for a given area - which then makes houses the equivalent of 
FOSS since once you buy it, it's yours.
> So, if we can agree that the existence of free markets is generally
> `a good thing' for houses and cars (and all sorts of other things),
> and that we benefit from being able to choose (and re-choose)
> who we hire to do maintenance (even if the car-dealership is
> the obvious /first/ option to try--though there's no analogue
> for houses...), I think it makes a lot of sense to ask your question:
>
>      "Why should software be any different?"
>
> If we're asking someone a question like "why are free markets bad?",
> maybe it'd be appropriate to ask the guy pushing proprietary systems
> another question:
>
>      "What are you, a communist?"
I've been called that and worse :)
>> If you already have to pay for software and hardware maintenance,
>> why bother training when you can have the vendor on the phone in two
>> minutes?
> And what's your contingency plan?
Oh, I'm not saying this is a good idea.  We have some core software we 
use (which happens to be mostly closed source), but over half of my 
staff has attended week-long training in it.

-Mark