Yes, I’m still at work.

My feelings regarding FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) have long been fairly apolitical. “Use what works” has been my motto; I’m an advocate of FLOSS where it serves a need well, and not elsewhere.

My opinions are becoming more polarized. I’m beginning to think any manager who DOESN’T specify FLOSS software for a particular niche in a given software project should be forced to provide a sound justification for using closed-source software.

Why? Because right now I am hobbled by the fact that I desperately need a set of software tools to work. And they don’t. And although we are paying thousands of dollars for a support contract, no amount of calls or emails can make the support people work any faster, or respond to my queries any sooner. I am powerless to speed things along. In a project that CANNOT wait, I am forced to wait. And I know that if the source were available to me, I could find out the answers to my questions, and possibly fix them. It wouldn’t be easy. It wouldn’t be fun. But it would be available as a last resort. Instead, I’m up against a wall.

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