Why Open Source Matters: Control
Posted in ESRI, Locality and Space, Social on March 12th, 2008 at 10:58:29Jo Cook writes about ESRI’s crackdown on licensing:
In what can only be described as a noble act of self-sacrifice, ESRI have told us that as an educational charity we are no longer allowed to have an educational discount for using their software and, not only that, our license codes will cease to work at the end of this month.
This is why Open Source software is so important. So you think you have a stable relationship with your vendor? Maybe you think that you’ve come to a great licensing agreement that you’re happy with? Remember that so long as you’re working in an environment where someone else controls the tools you use, you’re not able to make your own rules.
Why does Open Source software matter? If you’re not using it, you’re handing over control of your use of your tools — possibly important ones — to people who aren’t under your control. In the end, that lack of control may end up hurting you far more than you’d expect.