Open Source Advocacy: Wheeler revised his paper “Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!”

David Wheeler, who I always mention talking about Commercial open source, just released a revised version of his most famous paper, Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers!“. The study contains quantitative data showing that considering FLOSS makes a lot of sense.

Linux plate/dev/porsche by Xenedis

This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, using open source software / free software (abbreviated as OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS) is a reasonable or even superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to various measures. This paper’s goal is to show that you should consider using OSS/FS when acquiring software. This paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scalability, security, and total cost of ownership. It also has sections on non-quantitative issues, unnecessary fears, OSS/FS on the desktop, usage reports, governments and OSS/FS, other sites providing related information, and ends with some conclusions. An appendix gives more background information about OSS/FS. You can view this paper at http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html.

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