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

[bruce.labitt at autoliv.com]

gnhlug-discuss-bounces at mail.gnhlug.org wrote on 04/08/2011 10:11:13 AM:

> On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
> >>Why do many large organizations tend to resist FOSS?  Discuss.
> > FUD...utilizing the true definition....of the unknown.
> >
> > Even today there are lots of people in IT management who started after
> > the beginning of Microsoft and Apple....and other "systems" companies
> > who utilized closed source.  "Buying a solution" is all they know.
> 
>   But Jon, there's another aspect which is 'missing'.  His question
> was a trick one.  One assumes that they actually DID 'resist'.  It
> sounds to me like he just came out of the blue and 'dumped' a solution
> using something unexpected.
> 
> -- 
> -- Thomas
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gnhlug-discuss mailing list
> gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/

Au contraire, no dumping.  I wrote a simulation from scratch, because none 
existed.  There are no ready made tools to do this, from anyone, using any 
language, for this system.  Was there something else that I could of used? 
 Maybe.  My previous experience in the field, lead me to believe not much 
existed.

I probably wrote (and documented) the code faster than I could do any of 
the following: ( research field for codes that might be similar, figure 
out if I could use it to solve my problem, procure it, adapt someone elses 
stuff (the procured code) to my problem.) 

There were NO requirements that were given to me, just get the job done as 
fast as possible.  I kept no secrets about what I was doing, or how I was 
doing it.  And anyone could check or validate my results by 1) examining 
the source code 2) running it themselves, if they needed insight.  There 
is documentation in the source, and a plain old ascii text file that 
reveals the basic concept.  I wrote the text file - and I coded everything 
based on the text file.

For what it is worth, after the fact, one can nearly always port or 
cross-compile the code to any obscure platform with many Operating 
Systems.  Face it, it is relatively *easy* to do so, (long, tedious, but 
almost mechanical,)  the hard part is generating the original ip, 
architecture, dataflow, to solve the problem.

I was slightly taken aback by the comment, 'non-standard'.  Everything 
that I do is 'non-standard'.  I'm inventing new things.  If I did 
everything 'standard' there would be nothing new.  How does one innovate 
if one has to do *everything* in a standard fashion?

******************************
Consider the environment before printing this message.

Neither the footer nor anything else in this E-mail is intended to or constitutes an <br>electronic signature and/or legally binding agreement in the absence of an <br>express statement or Autoliv policy and/or procedure to the contrary.<br>This E-mail and any attachments hereto are Autoliv property and may contain legally <br>privileged, confidential and/or proprietary information.<br>The recipient of this E-mail is prohibited from distributing, copying, forwarding or in any way <br>disseminating any material contained within this E-mail without prior written <br>permission from the author. If you receive this E-mail in error, please <br>immediately notify the author and delete this E-mail.  Autoliv disclaims all <br>responsibility and liability for the consequences of any person who fails to <br>abide by the terms herein. <br>
******************************