

Total cost of software ownership - p3ll0n
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/07/08/software-total-cost-of-ownership/

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troygoode
My personal belief is that MOST of the time, open source will still win out -
but that isn't some sort of fundamental rule of the universe. Any discussion
of TCO that doesn't bring up support is missing the mark.

In this particular example I agree 7zip is a better choice, but many other
open source projects either have a paid support plan or lackluster support
(meaning you'll be supporting it yourself). Both of those scenarios need to be
calculated into the TCO.

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hga
One thing I heard quite a bit in the previous decade plus was that most
corporate copying of non-free software wasn't due to budget but friction, of
the sort the author details plus what most corporations shackle themselves
with.

