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

[Bruce Labitt]

Thanks, one and all, for your insights.  I hadn't intended 
this thread to quite play out the way it did, but it was at 
the very least entertaining in some way.

I don't develop software for a living.  I do use programming 
languages to model systems, to create product(s) with new 
capabilities, or to test proposed (or existing) systems to 
ensure *non-surprising* behavior.  So I try to use languages 
or tools on computers that help me evaluate these systems in 
the least amount of time.

I'm neither a FOSS zealot, nor a *closed source* guy.  I 
don't care how the job gets done as long as: 1) it works, 2) 
it is documented, so that others can understand what  has 
been done, and 3) others can eventually take on the work.  
That way I become available to undertake another assignment, 
typically another tough problem.  FOSS can be one way to get 
the job done.

md's observation of evaluating whether or not FOSS would be 
useful (at the beginning of a project) is spot on.  I made 
that evaluation - and decided on using FOSS for my little 
exercise.  Will I have to port my stuff to non-FOSS?  
Maybe.  It doesn't much matter to me, actually.  What 
matters to me that items 1, 2, & 3 in the previous paragraph 
have been accomplished in a timely fashion.

-Bruce