Re: [Off Topic] Words to Avoid "Vendor" [was Re: Questions to answer]

[Davyd Madeley <davyd madeley id au>]

On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 11:23:44PM -0500, Behdad Esfahbod wrote:

> Not necessarily.  There's no reason why a vendor developing tax
> software cannot release their software as Free Software.  They
> still can sell their software, the same way Red Hat can sell its
> software.  And they have the benefit of having hundreds pairs of
> eyes reviewing their software for them.  Nothing really
> different here.

High-end tax software, as used by accountants is actually a good
example of software that is less likely to go open in the
foreseeable future. It would still be nice to have this sort of
software available on the GNOME desktop, not because people can use
it at home, but because there are a lot of accountants in the world
who need to use this sort of software.

This type of tax software contains lots of communication with tax
department style code which is unlikely to be allowed out into the
open. This sort of software does not lend itself to the 1 million
eyes approach, as it filled with lots of rules specific to tax law,
and thus needs to have certification from specific bodies before it
is worth two bob.

There exists a lot of this highly vertical software that contains
too much of other people's IP to be released freely, does not fit
into the company's traditional business model, or is simply too
complex and require too much specialist knowledge to be much use as
open source software, that it doesn't bother me in the slightest
that it is not open. It would however, be really nice if we can give
them a free and open, yet stable, platform for their software so
that perhaps one day they will be able to free up and open at least
some parts of their technology (ala VMWare).

--d

-- 
Davyd Madeley

http://www.davyd.id.au/
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