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Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?
Subject:Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered? From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
> Watching various software questions being asked on this list, I
> keep wondering why so few list members consider open source
software
> when evaluating tools?
Bruce...I'll give you my reason, you may not like it, and you may
have lots of yeah-buts. However, it is MY reason. I'll phrase it in
terms of an example.
Let's say I am interested in an image manipulation application. I've
heard alot about GIMP, so we'll use that as an example.
I do a search for GIMP and am given the page www.gimp.org (I'm sure
you are familiar with it).
I'm not interested in anything other than getting it, installing it,
and using it. So, I see the link on the left for GIMP for Windows. I
click it.
Uh, oh...I first need to get an installer. I click it.
I see a message: "You can download installers for the GIMP for
Windows from this page. Before downloading any of them, please read
the FAQ, as it solves most of the common problems."
Now I have to read an FAQ first.
Hmmm..what's this "You will need to download both GTK+ Runtime
Environment and The GIMP installers. Install GTK+ before installing
The Gimp. "
Bruce...by now, I've forgotten what I'm here for.
The problem is...open source is fun for developers. I for one, only
want to resize an image and change it from TIF to PNG.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
"What do we want? More than
anybody else has."
Steve Ballmer
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