We were evaluating Microsoft Share Point as one of the tools for our new intranet website. Since I've long been an advocate of open source software, I made a comment to the effect of (to our presenter) “What is your experience with public domain and/or open source solutions?”. The presenter told me that he didn't have much experience with that kind of software. A few seconds after my project manager said “I was told we couldn't use free ware or shareware software.” I also heard a comment from another participant a little later “It's easier to compromise because anyone can see the code.”
For some reason this comment struck a nerve. I asked my self “Where would such a mindset come from?” Now bear in mind that the person who told him this was our CIO. I thought for sure that she would know the difference between the types of software. She could very well have known but if she did she surely didn't make it clear to the PM.
By the time we got out of the meeting it was late in the day and it was almost time to go home. I let this whole event fester in my head for a while and then started to think about it. Most of the people who work in my department are either ready to retire (baby boomers) or just below that age range. Most of which grew up using Microsoft products and were well into the industry before the open source concept was popularized. This got me thinking even more. Can it be that the people I work with can't understand the concept, or do they just not want to understand? To be honest I'm not really sure.
I made a point in the meeting to explain the difference between shareware, free ware and open source. I still don't think anyone got it but at least I had to try. It was also mentioned in the meeting that open source isn't tested enough. What does that mean? In my opinion open source projects generally have more loyal users who spend most of the time testing because the code is available for use during all stages of development. I even told them that Microsoft took this theory and let users (freely) test Windows Vista before it was released.
I realized that people still weren't getting my point so I used some in house examples. We are primarily a Novell Netware shop so lots of our servers are running the Netware kernel. Little do most people know, that when installing Netware 6.5, there is the option to use the Netware kernel or a Linux kernel. I don't know the exact amount of servers running the Linux kernel but I bet there are a few. I also mentioned that we have a few OpenSuSE servers running as well. I got a few inquisitive looks. Unfortunately my rant was flawed because I didn't have exact numbers on the in house technologies.