Re: OpenSource vs. Commercial

Danijel Tkalcec (RealThinClient) wrote:
Let's say there are 2 similar component sets for Delphi/BCB which do something you will need in your next application. One is Open Source, the other is Commercial, but not too expensive. Let's also say those components are not trivial and your product's success depends on those components stability, flexibility and robustness. At the moment, both component sets seem to offer the same, but there's a lot of things you would like to be added in the future.

What would you choose?
A) The Open Source project (free with source code), or
B) not-so-expensive commercial product (also with full source code)?


For me, having the source is most important of all - regardless of how good a component is, if source is not available, we do not and will never use it.

Then it depends ....for me, the Open Source is more attractive, because it's possible that what you need is the same that other users will need, so there's a bigger chance that this will be added, just as you need the functions to be. If you choose to make the changes yourself, then you can submit this for inclusion in future versions.
With the commercial set, you depend on requesting this from the developers and they must, by nature, weigh all the other similar requests and choose the most popular and economic route for develop. If you choose to make the changes yourself, then you might change the components enough so that upgrading future versions could be a problem.

Support and FAQ normally is not important for me ... if I have the source, I will figure it out - it's the only way to really understand what's going on in the code anyway.
.

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