Re: What so special about PostgreSQL and other RDBMS?

On Thu, 27 May 2004, wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam wrote:
> Galen Boyer wrote:
>
>> Success of open source isn't solely dependent on the purchaser
>> tinkering. One thing you could do, if it was open source, was
>> hire someone who specialized in that technology to fix it for
>> you. With closed source, the only option you have is Oracle
>> releasing a patch or new version. Thats it.
>>
>
>
> Sorry, no. You are assuming that:
>
> 1- it somehow needs fixing from the word go.

I didn't say that.

> Nothing says that is the case. When you buy an app using a db,
> you expect it to work. Period. If it does, you pay for the
> purchase. If it doesn't, you send them packing and get another
> vendor in. What the heck do you need source code for?

I'm not talking about this situation.

> 2- "Hiring someone specialised" is somehow magically cheaper
> than getting a piece of software of the appropriate vintage.

Probably alot cheaper than buying the software and then paying for support, probably by a substantial amount.

> At a time when software is getting cheaper and cheaper and
> development costs more expensive by the minute, the entire
> theory of "source code included" is nothing more nothing else
> than pure unadulterated shite.

I can't believe you are saying this Noons. Linux is very very good.

> And that is the bottom line. I know that I'd like to have the
> source code and tinker around with it like Kim suggested. But
> the economic reality nowadays is that it is pure financial
> suicide to rely on source code to "fix" anything. The costs of
> hiring the right people to make that code usable (and
> maintaining it in a usable form) are astronomical compared to
> just getting a new release upgrade.
>
> Did you know that 30 years ago it was quite common to buy the
> OS for your system WITH the source code included? It turned
> out to be so expensive to even attempt to do anything with that
> source code that the whole idea was abandoned ages ago.
>
> I'm sorry, but this whole "source code included" rubbish is old
> hat: the industry has been there, done that, and found it was
> unworkable. About time we learned from history instead of just
> repeating the same errors in a never-ending circle.

I don't get it. Apache, Linux, JBoss, ... Enterprise solutions that are open-source. You are wrong in what you are saying here.

-- 
Galen Boyer