Looking for some ideas?

basing it around windows v linux

Any help would be greatly appreciated

I say that it is a threat in the sense that sooner or later, people will be tired of spending chunks of money on stuff they actually can get for no cost and even have specific changes done to the software they use.

I mean, with open source, you can hire people to tweak software to your specification. Also, if you notice, more and more people are shifting base to Open source.

So ofcourse, commercial software will lose off its ground hold eventually but as of now, people are ignorant of the free alternatives provided by Free and Open Source Software. All we can do to contribute is to target these ignorant societies and spread awareness about Open Source.

I have very strong views on this topic and I can write forever but...

Cheers and keep promoting Free and Open Source Software
I will tell you an interesting story. Hope you won't mind the long post that this will become.

In India, CBSE is the regulatory authority which decides the course curriculum in schools. Now, CBSE has declared that it compulsary to teach Oracle + WinXP and other such properitary stuff. Just imagine the investment the schools would have to make to buy the properitary software. Some schools have rebeled to this move by CBSE and would you believe it, some schools have bought the properitary stuff because they are not aware of Linux and Open source.

And there are schools who have asked for the help of Linux For You(Asia's first Linux magazine) to help them assess how Linux would benefit them.

And Microsoft has already started sending letters to the schools asking them to buy the licensed copies which they want the schools to buy at per user license. That measn that the schools will have to buy new licenses each year for each new batch. Whew...

So, yes commercial software will lose it's market share someday. But we have to realize that commercial software is thriving because of ignorant people who are not aware of free alternatives to commercial software.

I think it is our responsibility to target these societies and spread awareness about free and open source software.

I would have written more as I have strong views on this topic but there is a word limit, duh...
Anyways

Cheers and keep promoting Free and Open Source software.

i feel comercial software is a good thing (well not always) i do like the free alternatives, but som programs (mostly games and some very well/feature rich software) should cost some money so teh people who made it can get paid, i dono about you but im willing to pay a few bucks for great games, but i do think that people that sell the software some day should always realse the source (iv seen a few companise that amke games giv out the source to there old games that no one hardly buys anymore) -- still it dont make sence to me why i should pay as much for the software as i did for the system jsut to use the system, wich is why i like linux (actuly thats like the last reason i like it but anyways )

Why is it always "Is open/free stuff a threat to closed/non-free stuff"? Could you not turn the question on its head and make some really interesting reading? Are commercial apps a threat to their open/free counter-parts?

Because, like it or not commercial software provides a incredible amount of tax revenue. The US has the biggest software industry in the world, provides jobs and security to so many people. Now if they are not going to be paid for there intellectual property. Then where do these people go?, Computers have taken jobs away from the IT il literate, and now they are going to take it away from the IT specialists. I am for open source, but the "open source revolution" could be a hidden curse.

People this is a hidden agenda I wish to pick up on in my paper. Users steal money from these people from copyright law and piracy, now when we take it legally from them It could have lasting effects. I agree in saying that open source is on its way, but for the greater good. That I don't know yet.

(Any one got any ideas or facts I can look up, to get me some quotes?)

BaZ

One word: "Apache"

Also, suppose the "revolution" hapens and opensource takes over. software developers wont be just fired cause then where would updates come from? hardware manufactures & distro makers would supply the jobs for programers. big companies would have programmers on-hand to fix/modify the programs that they use, and the best way to find someone who can modify say, apache, is to find someone who programs for apache already.

also, from what I'v seen half the programers/techies around make custom programs for a specific use, that type of service can never be replaced by opensource programs. (take for example web designers)

*quote* Is Open source Software a threat to commercial?

Well ofcourse, Microsoft wouldn't be making an anti-linux campaign if it wasn't :P

I think it is a threat, but it will never lead the market so to speak. M$ will always have a hold on the consumer, simply because people want a familiar plug and play setup that is well know. I know linux is near that and is getting well known, but c'mon it is not realistically at the level of M$ in that department. Also, the level of telephone support and such will be hard to keep up with M$, another reason that people prefer M$ (even if their help does suck royally)

Also, an interesting perspective is that any distro of linux that will ever control the desktop, or even sever market, is in fact commercial. It is sold by RH, or Mandrake or whomever. So, I would definitely say commercial software will always be king.

Any commercial software as long as it is Open Source is fine with me.

Hey BarryRadio, if i interpreted your last post correctly, U are of the view that people cannot make money using Open Source.

Open Source is not just about giving the software for free. And even if you give software for free. Prgrammers can easily make money out of it. Suppose that my company, Lala Electronics(eg ) buys some open source software. But I find that the program should be optimized for my needs. So, I hire a programmer, pay him money and ask him to tweak the program for my needs. Period.

Now, that the program has been tweaked, i would obviousluy want some docs about the changes. So the programmer would charge me more money for the docs and all. That is how you make money out of open source, by providing support.

I agree that it is not fair for people to use commercial software and not pay up. If you use it, pay for it. Period.

But tell me, would you pay for good games, which would run on specific OS and keep renewing the license of that OS each year just so that you can play games. C'mon.

As for the quotes, ehm..., you can have mine anytime you want.

Originally posted by Thymox
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Are commercial apps a threat to their open/free counter-parts?
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How can they be? I mean how can a 2$ candy be a threat to a free candy. lol With the added bonus of you being able to change the flavour, color, fragnance and what not of the free candy.

I wasn't saying it was a thread... but I also wasn't saying that it wasn't. I was meerly saying that since everyone seems to write docs/articles/whatever about how open/free software hurts the commercial/non-free market that perhaps it'd be an interesting slant to ask the exact opposite question. Since this is for a Uni paper, I imagine that the tutors have perhaps heard the arguments before and it turning the question on its head might make the paper stand out more.

The $2 candy can easily threaten the $0 candy if the $2 candy completely swamps the market to the point that no-one knows about the $0 candy... a la Microsoft Windows/Office

My opinion: I do not think that open/free software actively threatens commercial software... but it keeps it on its toes. If a commercial software development house is in competition with free software, and they are on equal footing, then in order to prevent current users from defecting to, and to prevent potential users from starting with the free software, the commercial software development team has to come up with something that puts its offering ahead of the other. Call it good and healthy competition.

couldn't agree w/you more, or worded it more eloquently. i have friends and relatives all the time caling and asking "is there anything free i can run instead of this x software?" i proceed to give them the "yes, but, here are the 2 or 3 things it won't do" speech. usually ends up w/ "go ahead and buy that if those 2 features are that important. "