Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 25, 2003 08:28 PM
People who claim that "the value is in the source code" don't know what they are talking about. I worked for a company which had that attitude - actually it was the founder who had that attitude - and the consequence was that he wouldn't let anyone rewrite or significantly change the software. Consequently, the company went out of business because:
1. The software ran on old proprietary stuff and not what people want to use in the modern age.
2. The maintenance and administration of the source code was extremely deficient.
3. The value was really in the expertise which went into building the original software. But the founder effectively locked it up in something unmanageable and inaccessible.
Glue manufacture and software aren't easily comparable, but one can still realise that it isn't the ingredients list that matters - it's the know-how that went into making the end product. If you want to compare glue-making with the company I worked for, the analogy would be based on a company who had manufactured huge quantities of glue in the early 1990s and then subsequently attempted to sell off those decaying stocks as an excuse for a business plan.
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Debunking the "value is in the source code" myth
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 25, 2003 08:28 PM1. The software ran on old proprietary stuff and not what people want to use in the modern age.
2. The maintenance and administration of the source code was extremely deficient.
3. The value was really in the expertise which went into building the original software. But the founder effectively locked it up in something unmanageable and inaccessible.
Glue manufacture and software aren't easily comparable, but one can still realise that it isn't the ingredients list that matters - it's the know-how that went into making the end product. If you want to compare glue-making with the company I worked for, the analogy would be based on a company who had manufactured huge quantities of glue in the early 1990s and then subsequently attempted to sell off those decaying stocks as an excuse for a business plan.
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