Editorial
Open Source Freeware -- All It's Cracked Up To Be?
First up -- my mailbox has spilled over with kind souls reminding me that I should have used the term "open source freeware" when referring to the software used by the www.govt.nz site yesterday. Mea culpa - I confess!

At 5:30am my brain isn't always properly connected and my only excuse is that the intravenous caffeine drip I so heavily rely on had fallen out :-)

Also, it wasn't my intent to suggest that products such as Apache, PHP or MySQL are in any way inferior to their commercial counterparts -- indeed, far from it. The whole objective (which seems to have gotten lost in translation) was to praise the efforts of those who did such a damned fine job with that site in spite of the fact that their masters were being so short-sighted.

For the record, good old Scrouge McSimpson here is a strong advocate of open source freeware and you wouldn't catch me building a commercial-grade website using Microsoft NT/IIS even if my life depended upon it.

In fact, this situation raises some very interesting questions...

Why do people continue to pay good (and not insignificant amounts of) money for commercial products such as Windows/NT server and Microsoft's SQL Server when building websites -- while there are perfectly good, some would say "superior" products available in the form of open-source freeware?

Think about this...

Over the past two or three years we have been fed a constant stream of news stories exposing new flaws in Microsoft's IIS (webserver) and NT (operating system).

Where are all the stories detailing security holes in Apache, BSD Free Unix or Linux? To be honest, I can't recall a single one.

Is it just that the media prefers to go Microsoft bashing -- or is it that these open-source freeware products are genuinely more secure?

If you're an Apache, BSD, Linux or Microsoft guru -- let me know what you think the reasons are. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a burning desire to find out.

And, if you prefer to spend big bucks by building websites using commercial software rather than using open source freeware -- tell me why.

The Net Rulez -- OK?
Take a look at the IDG story (link in headlines section below) about the Domainz defamation suit against Alan Brown. The animal excrement is sure engaging the rotating air agitator in this case and hopefully a few people will get their bums kicked for being so hypocritical and disingenuous.

However, another, and extremely interesting point is raised by this article. I'll be covering it in tomorrow's column -- along with another example of the phenomenon I'm talking about. Got you guessing?

As always, your comments are gladly received.

Free republication rights available on request

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