The Hindu Business Line : Free style. But worth it?

Users of proprietary software complain that it is too costly, too rigid sometimes, offers restrictive licensing terms and poor after-sales service. But they have no alternative. Or do they? Is it time to plunge into open source/free alternatives with an open mind?

COMPLAINT One: "We are using a global database major's solutions for our datawarehousing requirements. We find that the vendor is very rigid with the annual maintenance contract (AMC) wherein they charge according to their own policy. For example, typically, a vendor's AMC is charged at X per cent (which should change from year to year) and that too at the current list price (which also may change). However, for our ERP package, the AMC per cent as well as the base price is fixed for all times. We are also not fully satisfied with the support extended by the database major whenever we report bugs or seek clarifications despite going in for an AMC.

— Chief Information Officer of a major personal hygiene products firm.

Complaint Two: The global vendor of the world's most widely sold operating system and other daily-use software offers an annual contract whose charges total up to the current cost of the software in three years or so. We have taken a policy decision across our group not to opt for the contract since the charges are exorbitant. This is only a gamble since our only hope is that the next version of the software won't be too costly and that it won't be released too near in the future. For, we would get the subsequent versions free if we keep paying the contract charges annually.

— Senior Vice-President, Business Strategy and Information Technology, of a major automobile components group.

Complaint Three: We used to have operating systems running all over our office. I was of the firm belief that all of that was licensed. The vendor, discreetly, took an inventory of all the machines we had and then matched it with the licences we had taken for the software. When that didn't match, we attributed it to the fact that some of our machines were bought from unbranded vendors and that their proof of purchase of the software did not lie with us. This cut no ice with the vendor and they wrote us a stern letter as if we were pirates. This is not the way to treat your professional clients. We have tuned off their radar and vowed to buy nothing more from them.

— CIO of a large oil drilling and rigging group.

Sounds like good, negative stuff? Enough for a good, juicy story on how software buyers are peeved and that sellers may not find enough buyers? That's what we too thought. But there is an incongruity here. Much as software buyers moan about vendor practices, there aren't too many taking the tough stand and throwing those terrifying contracts into the waste-bin.

Interestingly, chief information officers (CIOs) in companies we chatted up seemed aghast at the question we posed, "If the software you use today were to disappear overnight, would you have satisfactory alternatives?" This is not to say that they fell off the chair, but they certainly didn't think this was a serious enough question.

After collating the responses, we arrived at one conclusion: Nobody thinks there are serious alternatives, especially if those alternatives are open source or free software.

Ask yourself this question: Are you happy with your software? Not only just the way in which they work, but also the way in which they let you manage your resources - electronic, manpower, or monetary.

Most CIOs and managers have heard of open source software and free software, but have they really thought seriously about deploying them and/or look for alternatives in that arena? Free software is not free as in you pay nothing for it, although sometimes you could get something for free. It is free as far as the source code is concerned - free for you and your people to tailor it to your needs.

But the question remains - why should you look for an alternative in this area, and under what circumstances?

Some of the reasons directly have to do with money. Proprietary software is getting dearer, especially because of a slew of changes in licensing terms in the past year or so. They are sometimes too costly in the simplest of ways - price per package, and sometimes they are costly because of changes in licensing terms - like the brouhaha over recent Microsoft and Oracle licence agreements. (See Business Line dated April 15, 2002.) Sometimes, the cost is not all that direct - some proprietary software compel you to get on to a vicious software/hardware/skills upgrade cycle - but all the more important.

Another reason for looking at open source/free alternatives is that, sometimes, proprietary software is just a bit too rigid for certain business process considerations. For instance, quite a few embedded systems and workflow and process automation companies prefer to use open source/free software for their programming/controllers because they offer more flexibility and pave the way for better resource utilisation.

Other major considerations for looking at open source alternatives are to get away from restrictive licensing practices, growing threat of legal action and claims for damages and penalties for small infringements of licensing terms/copyrights and a growing dissatisfaction with the level of flexibility and service offered both commercially and technologically.

The ideal candidate

Okay, so is open source the only way to go? That depends on who you are and what you want. If you are in a company that is tied to proprietary software because of the key business tools you use, then you obviously have no choice. But if you are not tied to a particular platform because of any key tools, then you are the right candidate to think about an open source implementation. It is also possible to make certain sections of your company free. If there is a whole workgroup that needs a minimal set of applications to get their work done and there are good open source alternatives, then you should go ahead, "free" that division. You can always communicate across divisions using open standards. Even documents have open standards - for instance use plain text for memos and routine documents and use HTML for formatted documents. There are certain open source alternatives that can also read and write proprietary formats (admittedly, not perfectly if you use some of the more obscure or the latest formatting tools).

It is next to impossible to turn your office completely "free" or "open". The starting, stumbling block may be a sub-conscious resistance to change. For instance, a large Indian personal hygiene products company tried free software such as StarOffice, which is looked upon as a substitute to Mircosoft's suite of Office products. But users were unhappy with the freeware.

Says the Deputy General Manager, Information Systems, of the company, "Our company recently purchased about 500 licences of Win XP professional and an equal number of Office XP. We tried using StarOffice but the users found it far too cumbersome and certainly not as user-friendly as MS Office."

Secondly, even if you were actively considering open source software, a seller of commercial software may tempt you with a low price. And, you may discover hidden costs only when it is too late. Take the case of this CIO who was ecstatic when a database vendor gave away as many extra licences free, as there were existing licences. The user later discovered that the AMC, which is a percentage of the total cost of software, was based on the final tally of licences rather than the earlier count, which was only half of the current cost.

But you can certainly begin with converting departments that are not tied down by proprietary software. Also you can always have a mix of open and proprietary software wherever they can work together very well. For instance, quite a few popular database management software are capable of running on several platforms. A closed database server can run on top of an open platform and an open browser can work on top of a proprietary platform. Find out more about open source alternatives for each function and mix and match - you'll definitely save on cost.

While we are on about not being able to turn an office completely free or open, we should also realise that certain areas of business do not have any classy open source tools - image editing, multimedia authoring and handling video are examples. However, this is not to say that there will be no alternatives available in the future, too. It is because of the nature of open source/free software that this anomaly exists. The main contributors and users of open source till now have been hardcore techies and they have not found much use for the kinds of applications mentioned. But once adoption picks up, more programmers will be willing to spend their time and knowledge on creating class programs for special functions.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to thinking about open/free software is that they are perceived as not having "support" but the fact is that there are companies that are willing to support, and for common programs, there are so many free resources. Another is that of technical capabilities. Mainstream, commercial software far surpass the nearest competitor in the open source market. The Deputy General Manager, Information Systems, of the personal hygiene products company, said as much to eWorld, in response to a pointed question on the issue. He added, "As CIO, my choice is limited. And further, any organisation can have a good leverage on the pricing (for product as well as the AMC), provided the order value is large. The vendor has to see our account as strategic. This is important for any concessions on pricing for monopoly products."

According to him, "The only open source we have got is Linux which is proving to be quite stable and up to expectations. My conclusion is that most of the freeware (barring a few like Linux, Netscape) would have no guarantee of performance and are generally clones of the standard product. We believe in getting a higher quality product from standard vendors, albeit the cost is more."

eworld@thehindu.co.in

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