To Open Source, or Not To Open Source
I strongly believe that many of my clients would have been better served if they had used open source technologies rather than proprietary solutions. Why pay the high cost of software licenses? My clients sometimes have to pay $30,000 just for software, and they have nothing to show for it – by itself, the software does not address any of their problems.
I do not believe that SQL Server, IIS and the .NET framework are so superior to MySQL and Apache server that the selection of one over the other will cause a project to fail – certainly not for most projects.Still, I do enjoy the Visual Studio IDE. And, I am drawn to the Windows Workflow Foundation. I like using SQL Server – I like being able to see a visual representation of my database right in the Enterprise Manager. I would like to draw my program logic with a tool rather than code it – it is all good stuff.
If you have a shop of software developers who create and maintain a series of applications, I can see using proprietary tools. I feel that I can be very productive in .NET. On the other hand, if you have a web site, or a single web application, the costs are prohibitive. In a shop, sometimes the cost of the software can be offset by increases in productivity. It is also a good idea to choose to use the tools that people who are just coming out of school were trained to us.
Still, is an annual report that was produced using Open Office inherently superior to an annual report that was prepared using Microsoft Office? It depends on who created the report, doesn’t it? Is a slideshow presentation that was created using PowerPoint superior to any other? Of course not. Is a simple website better when it is developed using the .Net framework? Nonsense.
Building a good web site is about having a good information architecture, and good planning. A good web site acheives an objective, often a business objective, and the quality of the web site should be measured against that objective. Would William Shakespeare have been a better poet if he had used a word processor? Is an email from my wife better if I read it using Evolution or Thunderbird rather than Outlook? Come on! Nonsense.
To open source, or not to open source? I will not recommend one over the other. Pay attention to what it is you want to achieve. Do not get distracted by hype one way or the other. Also, consider the following. Internet service providers often charge more to host Windows based solutions. Ask them why. Many will tell you that the Microsoft based solutions require more human intervention and support than solutions that are based on Linux and Apache. Ask around. Don’t just depend on studies – ask around.
Many people are doing very well by using open source software. Does it make sense to pay about $25,000 for an enterprise version of SQL Server? I do not think so. I have seen some of the databases that have been built using these technologies – many of the features are not even being used. The features or capabilities that are used in most of the databases I see are also available in open source database products such as MySQL or PostresSQL.
Is Computer Science Dead?
Wow! This article at eweek really got me. I will try to keep this short. Everything I read on the Internet about computers seems to be about technique, or about tools. On the one hand, that is what I am interested in, but, on the other hand, that is all any of us seems interested in.
Where are the discussions about how computers can be used to change our lives? We talk a lot about how they already have changed our lives, but that is not the same. Who are the visionaries? The Microsoft vision was a computer on every desktop – well, here we are. And, so what?
Have our lives gotten better? Does anybody know? These are very fact-oriented times. It is common for politicians during an election to argue about whether the other person’s numbers add up – that seems to be a form of scathing criticism. Who is talking about vision? When was the last time you heard someone say, “Your vision is not compelling.”
If I am going to continue in this field, I want to formulate a vision to guide me. All of this stuff I have been thinking about so-called smart data could be idle thought, but I suspect that it is the seed of my vision. Perhaps it will be compelling to nobody but myself – or, I may have to build it, or part of it, to show what I mean.
Or, I could get out of the field entirely. Perhaps it is time for a new career. In any event, I am restless. I was expecting at least one comment when I wrote about “smart data“, but I have received no comments. I do not know what that means – either my readers are a passive group, or I have said nothing to stimulate discussion.
Somewhere between artificial intelligance, and computers as we use them today, there is a smarter and more useful way to organize and serve up information. All we have now are systems that serve up files or tables from databases. I think we have taken this as far as we should take it.
The tools of the future should be about creating information, not files. Information can represent itself in a number of ways, and it should be aware of its relationship to other information. I will keep thinking.
The Smart Data Vision
It’s wrong – the way we interact with computers is wrong. That is where I am coming from – this whole “smart data” kick I am on. In the 1960s, when Captain Kirk spoke to his computer, he requested information. He did not use applications, and he did not seem to have to know whether he was searching for a spreadsheet, for a row in a table in a Oracle database or for a web page – he wanted to information plain and simple.
Computers serve files, but they seem to need us to do the work of retrieving them. Computers do not know what individual files contain. My vision is of computers that know about the files they contain, and are able to extract information from them. From time to time, I get comments from readers who care about technique. They recommend technologies, or tools, but what about the vision. Technique has become uninteresting to me for now.
I am thinking about everything I build in a new way. The way I work has to change. I am thinking deeply about this.