J
Jeff Dean:
> As another person touched on - longevity is also important. I would not
> use or recommend Linux, because I do not believe it will last as the
> underdog's darling...
...
> While Linux may never fade into oblivion, I believe peoples interest and
> its use will fade. That's reason enough for me not to build an automation
> solution on top of it.
Hmm...
- With a commercial product: the product is supported as long as the author
chooses to support it. When it chooses to discontinue support (or the
company itself folds - though in the case of MS that's unlikely), there's
nothing you, as an individual user, can do about it. The software itself
will still run [*], but without the backing of its author support will
become increasingly difficult (eg finding compatible hardware).
Eventually, support becomes impossible.
- With an open-source product: the product is supported as long as anyone
chooses to support it. When no-one supports it any longer, you, as an
individual user, still have the source code and the right to hire
programmers to modify it. The software will run, but you will have to
maintain it yourself (eg drivers for new hardware).
Support becomes more expensive, but never impossible.
[*] That's assuming a traditional `sale'. If the product is leased, it will simply stop when the licence runs out (or when the central licence server shuts down, in the case of on-line licences and a folded business).
Jiri
--
Jiri Baum <[email protected]>
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jiribvisit the MAT LinuxPLC project at http://mat.sourceforge.net
> As another person touched on - longevity is also important. I would not
> use or recommend Linux, because I do not believe it will last as the
> underdog's darling...
...
> While Linux may never fade into oblivion, I believe peoples interest and
> its use will fade. That's reason enough for me not to build an automation
> solution on top of it.
Hmm...
- With a commercial product: the product is supported as long as the author
chooses to support it. When it chooses to discontinue support (or the
company itself folds - though in the case of MS that's unlikely), there's
nothing you, as an individual user, can do about it. The software itself
will still run [*], but without the backing of its author support will
become increasingly difficult (eg finding compatible hardware).
Eventually, support becomes impossible.
- With an open-source product: the product is supported as long as anyone
chooses to support it. When no-one supports it any longer, you, as an
individual user, still have the source code and the right to hire
programmers to modify it. The software will run, but you will have to
maintain it yourself (eg drivers for new hardware).
Support becomes more expensive, but never impossible.
[*] That's assuming a traditional `sale'. If the product is leased, it will simply stop when the licence runs out (or when the central licence server shuts down, in the case of on-line licences and a folded business).
Jiri
--
Jiri Baum <[email protected]>
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jiribvisit the MAT LinuxPLC project at http://mat.sourceforge.net