Comment who benefits from opensource on windows... ? (Score 1) 551
I think the whole point is about who benefits when you make an opensource product on windows. Is it you the founder ? Is it me the user ? hmm ..its tough. In this case I'm sure shawn benefitted greatly by releasing a .NET open source product thats tied down greatly to microsoft proprietary products. He has been able to benefit greatly thanks to the fact that microsoft themselves have promoted dnn greatly on their asp.net site. I guess now he can make a handsome income selling services whereas to selling licenses(which microsoft does currently with all their products).
So, Shawn walker the founder benefitted, but what about me the end users who uses dotnetnuke ? Lets find out. In order to run this wonderful free, opensource product created by the great shawn walker, i have some hidden costs. And to simplify the case here is a normal person that wants to use dnn from the first release :
1. Its been written in vs.net, though you can modify it to be compiled at the commandline, this is a big job so you purchase a license for vs.net 2002, then 2003 and now vs.net 2005. This is not exactly free, the cheapest standard edition is some 250 bucks or so if you want to develop it further to meet your needs you need to purchase a license to vs.net :P
2. Its backend uses ms access or mssql server 2000 and now 2005, well, ms access is pretty bad as a database for web applications and scales badly(by the way ms office is not free and access is part of your office suite) . So you are forced to use msde or sql express if you are on a short budget or you can pay the $5000 one processor license to the standard edition of MSSQL Server. 2 processor license costs $20,000 and a 3 processor costs 40,000.... Oh, i can use the free editions you say, the stripped down versions of MSSQL server (msde or SQL Express) after all its free. Well if you dont already know, msde though being free has a query governor that limits its use to 8 simultaneous connections or so, and sql express is stripped down so badly that you might think again if it were wise to tie yourself down to a proprietary system like this or use a full blown open source database like postgresql, firebird, even mysql in this case is a much cheaper and better solution with better free database design and administration tools. You can also try a shared host setup but mssql costs are huge, you will notice soon enough :)
3. Lastly you need a WINDOWS machine to run your final free opensource DOTNETNUKE product. This can vary greatly in prices but a windows 2003 standard edition(not windows xp) costs you around $1000. Maybe you want to run 2 web servers and have your database run on a seperate server as per microsoft specs that the database should be accessible only locally, while the web server be open publicly, hmm well, thats $2000 + $5000 + a couple of hundred bucks by now probably reached a 1000 because of the 3 seperate vs.net versions you had to purchase.
Wow, i think i want to thank shawn walker very much for doing such a great job selling me microsoft licenses. You are my hero shawn, surely you deserve all my respect now. I just dream of one day being a microsoft reseller like you :-(
And trust me, i havent even started to warm up here, just let your imagintation run wild and its not so difficult to see who the real winner is here. IS it shawn ? Is it you the user ? or is it MICROSOFT! SO what is exactly free about opensource that is tied down to windows ?
And dont get me started on mono(who are just so scared until now about being sued by microsoft) that you can use to run .net applications on linux or the thousands of cheap shared hosting solutions on windows. These do not resolve anything! Fact is even if i moved to a shared host setup, microsoft sold a license, and do not forget the many limitations and restrictions imposed on you and the high costs involved whereas to running your own independant server.
Based on these facts i think its really useless to promote opensource that are tied down to proprietary systems. Ofcourse these are my personal opinions and i have nothing against shawn walker, he's just trying to survive in this tough world like everybody. So if some of my sarcasm was in appropriate, forgive me, windows just got the better of me :-(
Alessandro, Italy :)
So, Shawn walker the founder benefitted, but what about me the end users who uses dotnetnuke ? Lets find out. In order to run this wonderful free, opensource product created by the great shawn walker, i have some hidden costs. And to simplify the case here is a normal person that wants to use dnn from the first release :
1. Its been written in vs.net, though you can modify it to be compiled at the commandline, this is a big job so you purchase a license for vs.net 2002, then 2003 and now vs.net 2005. This is not exactly free, the cheapest standard edition is some 250 bucks or so if you want to develop it further to meet your needs you need to purchase a license to vs.net
2. Its backend uses ms access or mssql server 2000 and now 2005, well, ms access is pretty bad as a database for web applications and scales badly(by the way ms office is not free and access is part of your office suite) . So you are forced to use msde or sql express if you are on a short budget or you can pay the $5000 one processor license to the standard edition of MSSQL Server. 2 processor license costs $20,000 and a 3 processor costs 40,000.... Oh, i can use the free editions you say, the stripped down versions of MSSQL server (msde or SQL Express) after all its free. Well if you dont already know, msde though being free has a query governor that limits its use to 8 simultaneous connections or so, and sql express is stripped down so badly that you might think again if it were wise to tie yourself down to a proprietary system like this or use a full blown open source database like postgresql, firebird, even mysql in this case is a much cheaper and better solution with better free database design and administration tools. You can also try a shared host setup but mssql costs are huge, you will notice soon enough
3. Lastly you need a WINDOWS machine to run your final free opensource DOTNETNUKE product. This can vary greatly in prices but a windows 2003 standard edition(not windows xp) costs you around $1000. Maybe you want to run 2 web servers and have your database run on a seperate server as per microsoft specs that the database should be accessible only locally, while the web server be open publicly, hmm well, thats $2000 + $5000 + a couple of hundred bucks by now probably reached a 1000 because of the 3 seperate vs.net versions you had to purchase.
Wow, i think i want to thank shawn walker very much for doing such a great job selling me microsoft licenses. You are my hero shawn, surely you deserve all my respect now. I just dream of one day being a microsoft reseller like you
And trust me, i havent even started to warm up here, just let your imagintation run wild and its not so difficult to see who the real winner is here. IS it shawn ? Is it you the user ? or is it MICROSOFT! SO what is exactly free about opensource that is tied down to windows ?
And dont get me started on mono(who are just so scared until now about being sued by microsoft) that you can use to run
Based on these facts i think its really useless to promote opensource that are tied down to proprietary systems. Ofcourse these are my personal opinions and i have nothing against shawn walker, he's just trying to survive in this tough world like everybody. So if some of my sarcasm was in appropriate, forgive me, windows just got the better of me
Alessandro, Italy
