The next big skill - Open Source?

[milanbenes]

nobody respects anything which is free

nobody will thank you for your free solution

Simple rule in IT, if it is not painfully expensive, avoid it

Milan.

[dang65]

nobody respects anything which is free

nobody will thank you for your free solution

Simple rule in IT, if it is not painfully expensive, avoid it

Milan.

Do you consider the Web to be IT? Because I'd say that was the greatest open source project in history, and at least the big 20 websites aren't just respected... they pretty much rule the planet.

[TimberWolf]

Do you consider the Web to be IT? Because I'd say that was the greatest open source project in history, and at least the big 20 websites aren't just respected... they pretty much rule the planet.

Ditto for cryptographic algorithms. All proprietary/closed source solutions suck or have major flaws or potential for or real back-doors. Stick to open source for those - the amount of work required to keep them secure is too vast for any single company to fund.

[Pondlife]

nobody respects anything which is free

nobody will thank you for your free solution

Simple rule in IT, if it is not painfully expensive, avoid it

Milan.

I'm trying to think of a great big expensive IT system to get in to. I reckon there could be money to be made.

[rootsnall]

I'm trying to think of a great big expensive IT system to get in to. I reckon there could be money to be made.

It also must have source code that is the biggest heap of tulip you have ever seen.

[DimPrawn]

I'm trying to think of a great big expensive IT system to get in to. I reckon there could be money to be made.

Something that would sap the life out of you but make you rich?

[expat]

Anyone seen this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7910110.stm

Wonder if that means those of us who have had experience working with Open Source projects in the real world can see boom times coming regards government gigs?

Gimme a break, that's not how UK Gov works. We have seen for years that their modus operandi is to give lucrative contracts to the likes of EDS and Accenture, while ignoring the UK's large pool of experienced contractors. Then they look to the Indians to revive the projects, while ignoring the UK's large pool of experienced contractors.

Meanwhile we are just costs, not assets. Costs that are too high, because these people have no idea of quality, and so no ability to detect real value for money.

Now they are looking at Open Source? Do you think that means "collaborative"? I think it means "free" to them.

Did I say that they ignore the UK's large pool of experienced contractors?

[DimPrawn]

Did I say that they ignore the UK's large pool of experienced contractors?

Tax dodging criminals in their minds.

[portseven]

Tomcat

It is one serious pile of mince.

If you think its that bad why don't you contribute some code to fix the issues? Thats the frikkin point with open source! People see bugs and they can fix them!

[threaded]

Ditto for cryptographic algorithms. All proprietary/closed source solutions suck or have major flaws or potential for or real back-doors. Stick to open source for those - the amount of work required to keep them secure is too vast for any single company to fund.

True, yet not just the algorithm, but the implementation too. Not many programmers can code up security stuff in any meaningful way. (Which is good for me.)

For example, one closed source implementation of an open source algorithm has just 256 'real' keys, instead of the several billion it should have. Will they ever fix it? Probably not.