Kclug Digest, Vol 39, Issue 9

[Matthew Copple]

On Mon, 2007-10-08 at 23:09 -0500, leenix wrote:

> 2. If I buy a piece of software that is closed-source, the company
> selling it to me has to support it. If something is wrong with it,
> they'll fix it, because that's where they make their money.
> 

I picked this up off /. just in time for this discussion:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071008-when-google-acquisitions-go-wrong-the-disappointing-story-of-urchin.html

No need to answer question #2, just print off the article and hand it to
the prospect. 

Some companies make money off support, others do not. Selling support
contracts is big business; it provides a steady revenue stream (since
the revenue can be recognized over the life of the contract, unlike a
software sale, which can only be recognized when the sale is made) that
can complement the one-time payment for software. But a contract is only
as good as the vendor offering it. Once the vendor no longer exists, the
contract is useful only as confetti for someone's retirement party.

Even if the company stays in business, having a contract does not mean
you will get support, as customers of Urchin found out in the article
above. And if the company is a monolith like Google, who's going to have
the resources to take them to court over it?