VB.Net vs OpenSource 2

[LonnieJohnson]

I work for a company that has always been a Microsoft shop. We have acquired a company that has developed an application using all open source and free products. Can anyone give me some reasons for keeping or abandoning the use of open source tools in a Microsoft shop?



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[RiverGuy]

It's all just math:

(Incremental Revenue + Money Saved from project) - (Licensing Costs + Project Hours and Salaries + Maintenance Costs) = $X

Which yields a higher X? It depends. Do projects take twice as long to produce when using free development tools? Maybe VB.Net makes more sense. Do projects take the same amount of time to develop to produce the same results? Maybe the lack of licensing fees makes Open Source make more sense.

However, if your company has hired a team of VB.Net developers, be prepared to spend a lot of time and money transitioning them to a new language.

 

[LonnieJohnson]

Thanks RiverGuy. The part about spending a lot of time and money is what I needed to hear. None of my guys write in PHP.

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[MrDataGuy]

While I do not have the ‘answer’ to keeping or abandoning open source ( or MS products) I can offer a few suggestions on things to consider.

-Consider asking the questions to the staff. Maybe you will be surprised e.g. they could say we hate the open source/VB.Net and wish we had used product-X. Or they might say if you change to using development tool-Y we will all leave.

-If the products need to communicate/integrate can they as two different development tools. Or how well can they? If they are separate, why not continue development in different tools?

-Does the Open-Source Licenses agreement make sense to your business? E.g. do you have to create open source version of your software also? Do you have to send copies of the code to the open source tool developers, in general what restrictions are placed on the software that your company makes? There may not be any of significance, or there may be lots.

-Your company may very well me strengthen by having two development platforms, if the developers can communicate with each other on a professional level, e.g. I learned this trick in VB.Net might you be able to do that in the Open Source tool?

-Will the open source be able to keep up with MS-OS changes like VB.Net will? Will Vb.Net be able to run on other OS like Linux that the open source might?

-Do you think your customers will care? Will they think Open Source Development mean that your company is not serious about development? Will the customer praise you for not following the big bad Microsoft? Will they know or give a rat’s &(*@^#?

-Does the MS or Open source have the tools for future expansion?

-If for some reason all of the developers failed to show up in the morning, can you find replacements, e.g. who else using VB.Net/Open Source.


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Anthony L. Testi
President

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[LonnieJohnson]

Thanks MrDataGuy,

Those are some thought provoking questions. Ones I will ponder later tonight as I write up my summary for my executive management.

The more I research it the more I wonder myself why anyone would pay the big cost of doing business with MS. I have always been an MS developer and never known anything else. At one time OpenSource was just a hobby or something that guys did that didn't have a real job. Now major applications are being created and sold as a service for big money.

ProDev, Builders of Affordable Software Applications
Visit me at ==>

http://www.prodev.us

May God bless you beyond your imagination!!!

 

[MrDataGuy]

pay the big cost of doing business with MS"
Well if you are developing an desktop APP to be run on a MS-OS, then the cost may not be all that big for a stable application.

On the other hand if you are building a weather application running on super-computer based on Linux, I would not suggest using MS Development tools.

There are of course 100s of other situations: Games, real-time systems, hardware control, Medical Equipment (Think x-ray scanner) websites, database etc, etc. There is no right tool for all situations.

I think (and this is only my opinion) MS .Net tries to be the end all development tool, and fails to be a really great anything. Now being able to use the same tool for a wide varity of apps can be a good thing (as in my case) but if I was only going to be developing 1 or 2 apps for the next 5 years, I might decided not use .Net and that another tool is better. I for example like to use Visual Foxpro for Small (1-25 user) database applications. Thou I use .net (Mostly VB.Net) for other application development.

Lion Crest Software Services
Anthony L. Testi
President

http://www.LionCrestSoftwareServices.com

 

[PRPhx]

And I'll add my 2 cents here. Does the software that you currently use allow for development in open-source. I work withsoftware in which you can use only 1 of 3 or 4 dev tools. Those being vb.net, c# and something called SBL (it's a vb scripting clone).

How many MS-OS apps has your company developed? How feasible would it be to convert to something else, if it's even possible? How many developers would have to be re-trained?