[plug] Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!

[James Devenish]

FYI,

A serious and apparently reputable article for reference:

Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!
David A. Wheeler (dwheeler at dwheeler.com)
Revised as of September 30, 2004
<http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html>

Abstract: "This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases,
using open source software / free software is a reasonable or even
superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to
various measures. This paper's goal is to show that you should consider
using OSS/FS when acquiring software. This paper examines market share,
reliability, performance, scalability, security, and total cost of
ownership. It also has sections on non-quantitative issues, unnecessary
fears, OSS/FS on the desktop, usage reports, other sites providing
related information, and ends with some conclusions. An appendix gives
more background information about OSS/FS. You can view this paper at
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html (HTML format). Palm PDA users
may wish to use Plucker to view this. A short briefing based on this
paper is also available in PDF and Open Office Impress formats (for the
latter, use Open Office Impress). Old archived copies and a list of
changes are also available."