Sent to WebDesign-L on 12/05/01:

Open Source vs. Proprietary Technolgies/Solutions, An Gum Analogy

I think of open-source as being like a piece of gum after it's 
been chewed.It's soft, flexible and has many uses, whereas 
vendor solutions are that same piece of gum, but pre-chewed 
(hard and inflexible). And guess what?  The vendor solutions 
only becomes useful after you've chewed up it so it's soft -- 
but often you have to pay lots of money to the vendor to chew 
the gum for you. Open-source gum is like ABC (Already Been 
Chewed) gum. People share it and pass it around and it's free. 
Proprietary gum is often like Bazooka Joe gum: you get one 
flavor and it's hard enough to break teeth. Oh, and you have to 
pay extra for the little comic (the manual). Open-source gum 
can be found just about anywhere (on the streets, under 
classroom desks) and proprietary gum you must pay for (but it 
comes in a shiny box).

-- 
Cameron Barrett
http://www.camworld.com
http://www.barrett.org