My top ten reasaon for going opensource

[ChickenWing88]

The following is a list of the ten reason i switched to *nix and Unix like opopating systems.


No need for Expensive security software (I.E. Anti Malware/Virous)
No constant nagging from mic$o$oft update
prompt security patches
6 to 36 month release cycle ( Depending on Distrution and =target market?
Optional Distribution upgrades
Support for older hardware
Virtually bullet proof built in security
Stronger passwords required default
it runs ninety percent of the htp, pop, imap anmd smtp servers in the world.
United States and other governments use it because of national security concerns.

[oliverh]

I was in need of a free UNIX in the early nineties :D

[DutchDaemon]

You forgot:

11. ispell and aspell

[rghq]

Don't forget:

Support ;)

This includes documentation, mailing lists and even a view in the source.
Some commercial software has help files in a form of "Click here to to read xyz and find out more about function abc" and after doing "function xyz is intend to be used with function abc"

Quite detailed to confuse people ;)

[fronclynne]

Support for older hardware
Its obverse being six (6) to eighteen (1.8*10^1) months for decent support on new hardware.

I hand't ever considered being bitten by this, but I found a good deal on a new laptop.

[rbelk]

I am a documentation nut and I have used most every kind of UNIX. Even the off brands like QNX, and Amdahl's ATX. The best UNIX documentation I have seen is the BSD's, in particular FreeBSD's docs, BTW kudos to the FreeBSD's Documentation team. The main reason I use Open Source is that it seems the documentation is 100% better than 95% of the commercial software documentation!