A Computer Programmer Explains Why Most Users Buy Commercial Software and Ignore Open Source Products.
This email came in response to my Reality Check report, "Escaping from Freeloaders, Politely" (Oct. 31, 2006). (Subscribe here.) I spoke of a computer programmer who insisted that free Open Source software is great, especially Linux. I replied: Anything offered for free is always risky. Don't rely on freebies for anything really important if you don't have to.
This computer programmer added another reason: Buyers as a group retain influence when they pay individually. Their money buys this influence: feedback attached to money.
Freeware doesn't offer equally persuasive feedback. Put another way, beggars can't be choosers.
I'm 62 and have a BCS (1999), MCS (2003) and am ABD (all but dissertation) for a PhD in computer science.
After all these years, I want software to install cleanly out of the box without arcane error messages or installation prompts such as "enter your IP address here". I don't read manuals. No one does which is why the industry stopped selling software with 500 page books, years ago.
I want software to be intuitive (admittedly a tall order, especially for software rich in functionality). Commercial software is generally pretty good. If I need to become a power Excel user, my bookstore sells 37 books on the latest version.
It is the open source software that I avoid. Not because I don't want to use it but because I can't. Installation is rarely straightforward and often punctuated by error messages and requests for information that I do not understand. Documentation is often incomplete, out of date or totally lacking.
It is generally a project run by a bunch of geeks. There is a reason that software companies lock these guys up in a back room and keep a firewall between them and the client base. These (very nice) guys and gals can code in 10 different languages (at least -- I've used a dozen over my career and academic life) and live in the UNIX world.
As a comment, many of the key programs that we use today such as spreadsheets, word processors, the world wide web (not a program but an idea), even Linux, were written by one or occasionally two people, not committees.
UNIX, and its derivatives such as Linux, are the best operating systems that never were. Everyone wrote their own flavour, because everyone knows how to do it better than the other guy and "get it right this time". This is a wonderful environment for computer science students to be nurtured in. But pity poor Mom and Pop that want some software and a computer to help them sell their widgets.
Apple got it right. Apple users love the products because they are virtually plug in, turn on and start working. Windows is OK (as long as they try and emulate Apple functionality), but it is a bloated behemoth stuffed with legacy code and functionality that still manages to crash on occasion.
The Windows environment represents the wild west of computing. Windows has a big target painted on its back. Every young gun, every hacker, every virus writer, has his sights fixed firmly on that target. On the positive side, every geek with an new idea will write for this platform.
To be fair, Apple's success (and almost failure) is due to the fact they are a closed platform. I can go to my computer store, fill a cart with components from a huge variety of sources, come home, and put together a PC that works. Most of the time -- I currently have several hundred dollars of hardware sitting on the floor that Windows won't install on.
You can't do this with Apple computers -- only Apple makes them. The software environment is similarly closely controlled. That's why it works.
To sum up my ramble, Software engineers are working in a space where they have no idea how software should appear and function for myself, let alone my 85 year old mother. Open source software is written by software engineers working without the feedback of commercial success that ensures Joe America can use it. It has an important place as the nursery for germinating ideas. But applications usable by ordinary people, seem to have to grow up in the commercial world.
To subscribe to Gary North's free Tip of the Week, use the subscription box here: www.garynorth.com