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Francesca Krihely:
Why Free Software Isn't Free
May 01, 2014 @ 15:14:36

Francesca Krihely has a new post today taking about one of the realities of using open source software. While the cost of it might be "free", in truth it isn't.

Why is it so hard to move off your old FOSS tools to new FOSS tools? Free and open software is changing the world, and has been for quite some time. While the price of open source software is usually $0 there are a number of hidden costs associated with building on top of new FOSS tools. The hidden cost is what makes community your biggest asset in open source.

She gives a more "real world" kind of situation where a company has a lot of legacy technology in place from years of work. She points out that moving to the latest technology has both benefits and drawbacks (including the "opportunity cost of moving slower" because of the shift). There's an emphasis put on the community around projects too. Without a vibrant community around it, even the best, most well-written code out there is going to stagnate. For a company that's relying on it for their product, that's almost not worth the risk.

tagged: free software opensource community project

Link: http://francescak.me/blog/2014/04/30/why-free-software-isnt-free/


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