Enterprise open source Toolkit

Story: Bursting the proprietary-software bubble

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Production vs Distribution

Thank the Master Programmer in the Sky that software is NOT distributed like DVD movies or music cuts!*1

Unfortunately the production costs are quantified by accountants using the models created in the age of XYZ dominance of the market. I've read studies that indicate x number of lines of code should be producible per day by a qualified programmer. I've seen the very same accounting mentality exhibited in the US space program. So many paragraphs/hour, so many words/hour by tech writers etc. As far as I know none of these models look at the actual quality of the output or whether the code was useful or just rubbish when "counted". It might be better just to look at the salaries of everybody that works on the project and just add up the man-hours and salary costs. So the reality is that the production costs are only a best guess as to what it really cost to produce the software.

The question of quality or usefulness is the biggest problem with software. Until you install and use it you have no idea whether or not the software is worth a damn or the the greatest thing since sliced bread. If it has problems you are at the mercy of the program supplier, Open Source or commercial. I'll settle for a less than perfect screen appearance if it works. With Open Source, you at least have the hope of being able to either fix it yourself or somebody else irritated by the same deficiency will fix it and release an update. If you want, you more than likely can download another program that might work better. At any rate, you haven't been "stiffed" with an unrecoverable monetary hit. With Microsoft "driving the train" you have to hope that others will complain loud enough to get MS's attention and they will release a fix. I'm tired of yelling and paying for the privilege.

*1 If software was delivered by a movie distributor, it would only work in the Americas or Europe or Asia. You'd have to buy a new version when you changed regions. It would only work on specially branded computers.

If I like obscure Bollywood musicals I have to buy a player, a TV and the DVDs in India and then import the DVDs ILLEGALLY into the United States! If I don't want to buy a player or TV, I can play the DVDs on my computer ILLEGALLY! I can't even have someone buy them for me and send them to me air freight. What freaking idiocy! What unmitigated greed!

50 to 75% of a movie ticket goes straight into the distributors pocket. That's why every movie-producing-corporation owns or operates a film distributor. The distributors pay for or make the film copies shown in the theaters. That is why there are very few digital movie theaters. If you can play the feature back from a computer straight into a theater over a satellite down-link channel, you don't need a distributor, you need a TCP/IP network provider.

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