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27 Jan

Cash is king

Posted by aross

The following article by Matt Assay comments on some notable IT vendors (closed & open source) and speculates on who has enough cash to weather the recession.

I'd like to comment on the obvious advantages of open source companies is that they can share risks, development costs, and other costs with their ecosystem/community. Similarly, the try-before-you-buy nature of open source may also take the edge of sales costs. Thus, it stands to reason that provided they have a equivilent sized revenue base, they should fare a little better than an equivilent closed source company.

Enjoy:

26 Jan

Why don't schools use more open source?

Posted by aross

Open source software allows students to look at the code and learn from it. It's free to download. You're encouraged to make modifications. It has a large online community providing free support and advice. Based on these attributes, you would perhaps expect open source would dominate academia. As I know all too well, that's not the case. In fact, in many cases schools (and governments) choose very expensive closed source solutions based on inertia, policies that hedge the decision towards large closed source vendors, and in some cases funding relationships with the vendors.

There was a great article posted today by the BBC covering this issue. Here are a few quotes:

26 Jan

30 useful open source applications for web designers

Posted by aross

I came across this article covering a nice collection of web development and graphics software. Enjoy:
http://sixrevisions.com/tools/30-useful-open-source-apps-for-web-designers

On a personal note, I'm often impressed with how often I have to get the job done with open source. For a few recent examples:

Open Source Lifestyle: Classroom to Career and beyond

Posted on 24. Jan, 2009 by aross
Event: 
OAK01
Speaker: 
Karsten Wade