Abstract
Please see http://perens.com/Slides/Copenhagen1 . I plan to update that talk. The addiction model of software purchasing is the norm in the industry. Government and corporate purchasers have not, in general, paid enough attention to the potential for vendor lock-in when they purchase software. A server using a proprietary protocol may compel the customer to select only a single vendor's products, because others can not interoperate with that server. Proprietary office file formats may force entities that deal with a customer to choose the same office software as that customer in order to interoperate. Thus, incompatible file formats and intercommunication protocols are a tool used by software vendors to lock the customer, and the customer's correspondents, into a single product. A purchasing policy that focuses on long-term savings rather than short-term ones would encourage a broad competitive market of interoperating products. I present purchasing policies that are fair to all vendors while achieving optimal results for thepurchaser. |
