I have been chatting with people about my frustration with getting simple
stuff to work "out-of-the-box" with Linux.

Things like simply plugging into a network and being able to browse XP
folders on a peer to peer XP network (that means no server and no
authentication needed) that are not password protected. Still don't have an
answer to that one....

But, yesterday, I ran into a shining example of one reason that FOSS will
never work for small business (which is MUST to be able to legitimately
challenge Microsoft's monopoly).

While I was testing some software in a Linux environment, I came across an
area in which it would not work as advertised by the authors. I raised some
polite concern (really...I was polite) about the problem in a user forum
specific to this software, only to be told politely to rtfm.

I re-rtfm. The problem persisted, so I raised my concerns again. Again I
was told to rtfm. Again I re-rtfm and returned with the same questions that
were unanswered by the manual.

This time I was politely informed where I could reach the authors of the
software. I went there and we went through the whole rtfm, re-rtfm loop
another 2 or three times until they finally asked to see my data. I sent
them my data files.

In about an hour, they confirmed that there was a problem. Great! Now
they'll jump right on it - because everyone wants their code to work like
they say it will, right?

Well, not really. I offered to help where I could (sacrificing a goat,
providing beer or money) but was told that the only help needed was to fix
the code. Unfortunately for me, I don't know C coding - so I am SOL.

Small businesses (which are 90+% of all businesses) are called "small
businesses" because they are small. This generally means no in-house
programmers. So, small businesses are at the mercy of the coders that
provide the software that they run on.

In this instance, I am at the mercy of these coders.

As nice as they are, this "I'll get to it when I can" attitude is just not
acceptable to small businesses. They lose market share. They lose
customers and they lose money when software doesn't work as advertised in
tfm.

This is why FOSS just doesn't work for the majority of businesses (which are
small businesses).

While I move on to look for proprietary sources to replace the broken open
sourced software, I am again reminded that the FOSS movement still "just
doesn't get it" where small business is concerned.

If it doesn't affect your earning a living or some other important aspect of
your life, FOSS may be just fine. But, if its important, its important
enough to pay to have it done right and supported.

jim