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I'm not sure why this thread has degenerated into an open source vs. commercial software war
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Because its what us humans do best lol
but seriously open source software is free, you are free to use it and free to modify it for your own needs. With commercial software you are locked into a licence agreement that states you may not modify the code, most of the time with commercial software you buy a licence to use the program, not the program itself. It you want to change something in the program to suit your business needs you cant, Open source is free in that way.
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The problem with a LOT of open source code is that it does not pass muster when it comes to commercial rigidity
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hmmm some might, but i would say a lot of commercial programs that people pay for are the same, just check the computer section for problems with paid apps. I only use open source on my computer and I can do anything that I can do with a commercial OS
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Red Hat for example, as an open source enterprise, used to heavily push the concept of "free as in beer" (i.e. it didn't cost anything to purchase by a user) AND "free as in speech" (source) to establish itself as a player in the server operating system market. Once free to download and contribute to - not any more. Now that it's done this it's like any other business - it's neither beer nor speech that they're interested in. "Jeez.... you mean we can make money outta this?
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I agree they used open source code to make money and the free software foundation says you are entitled to do this. They have a closed version of their OS but they also have and support, the growth of open source with their Fedora project OS. thus giving back which is also one of the rules.
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Maybe the title should have been "13 reasons why you shouldn't expect all software to be free".
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Maybe in the commercial software world you might need 13 reasons after all they only write software to make money. But in the open source world money is not the goal “Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. You dont put a price on it because if you do you take away the whole philosophy of open source and try to drag it back into the commercial domain where money as usual is the goal.