[ANSOL-geral][recortes] Open Source More Expensive In the Long Run?

[Lopo de Almeida]

Open Source More Expensive In the Long Run?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/06/2051218

    [0]Jack William Bell asks: "Could the PHBs possibly be right on this
    one? A recent evaluation I performed of competing commercial and Open
    Source products yielded the surprising result that the Open Source
    products were more expensive (in terms of lifetime costs) over a long
    term than many of the commercial offerings! Why? Basically this mostly
    revolves around higher support costs for Open Source products where no
    commercial support is available (unlike, say, Linux where you can
    purchase support from Red Hat, etc). This particular case might also be
    a result of one special set of requirements and environment and a
    similar evaluation for a different set of requirements and environment
    might yield a different outcome. But, nonetheless I found the
    experience instructive and I would like to ask two questions of the
    Slashdot readership: Firstly, is Open Source usually more expensive
    when all lifetime costs are factored in? And, secondly, is anyone in
    the business of providing commercial support and training for the
    entire universe of Open Source, perhaps contracting on a
    product-by-product basis? I guess a corollary to that question is, if
    not then why not? There might be a viable business model here!" 
Links
    0. mailto:jackb arroba sff.net