Sounds like you haven't had much development experience. Thats how programmers around the world code Free Software.
sure..thats how *everyone* codes...you mean to say that a closed source product has the same guys writing and maintaining the software? The point is, the company has *experts* on that product, and they are paid to just solve problems, which is not guranteed when u contact ur friendly-neighbourhood hacker.
Anyway... lets get your *closed* software in the picture here. I want someone else to better and maintain it now. Will you as a previous vendor:
- Help me
- Give my new partner the sources
- Even if you do 1. and 2. what will my new partner get
help from the community? No. because the community doesn't know - the software was closed.
again..why the emphasis on sources? As a IT Manager, I'd be more interested in getting the problem solved than in whether I have the sources or not.And secondly, do u think only open source software has communities? I've received fantastic help on some closed source products that I use from communities of users - so whats so special? I think your passion for source code is blinding you from the heart of the problem - source code is just not important in some cases!
regards, kishor
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