Support system of Open Source Software

While the open source software is available either at no cost or very minimal price tag but over all it may not be such a super saver.

Few negatives about open source software are non-availability to support, reactivity to security threats, regular upgrades etc. And companies which have used open source to create commercial models have exactly cashed on these cons. Typically the software is made available cheap but the support or maintenance will cost hefty. Classic example is redhat model.

From business perspective nothing wrong in this model but I personally feel it may have bad influence on the philosophy of open source. Secondly if the overall math turns out to be same as proprietary software then customer will have second thoughts.

Is this really the time for Open Source?

Lot is correlation is being established between Open Source and current economic conditions. Most common argument is rise of Open Source as an alternative for cutting costs in 2009. Now the question is whether the benefit of lower cost is compelling enough for corporates to switch products or not.

In theory, economically it definitely makes sense but one important consideration is the cost of migration. When companies are hard pressed for money, does it makes sense for them to invest further to move the existing setup. So the possibility of higher acceptance can be expected for new projects and cases where open source can integrate itself seemlessly into the mainstream business.

More about open source trends