Why Open Standards matter

Kelly McNeill writes “The more specialized a piece of software is, the smaller its target audience is. Chances are, this specialized nature also demands complexity in both development and use of this software. The Open Source approach doesn’t always perform as well when a project is surrounded with these conditions as compared to the proprietary alternative. Over time, complex things become easier. We learn as a group how to do things, and the whole process slowly becomes common knowledge. All software niches mature and reach a point where the skills necessary to develop and maintain the application are widely available. A mature software niche will be better served in the long term with Open Source solutions that work on open standards.”