http://www.campus-technology.com/news_article.asp?id=10299&typeid=155
Nothing really that new in the article except a nice graphic to illustrate the cost breakdown of commercial software vs. open source projects.
I wish they would have cited where the data was from on which the cost breakdowns are based.- SWL
I agree, where did that data come from? Wouldn’t training on a new system be similar for OSS or proprietary systems? There’s still a learning curve, and my experience with propritary systems is that the forums are less helpful than the open source ones. Or maybe … are they comparing 100% of $150K for a proprietary system versus 100% of $20K for open source?
I don’t think the training and development should be seen just learning to deal with the system. You need, or at least could use, staff that works on the development of the actual OSS software to make it suit your needs, one of the pro’s of OSS (customization), but you do need to think about the cost of having staff working on that. I think that’s what that segment repersents. And you wouldn’t be able to spend that money on proprietary systems because you can not customize them anyway.