[Info-vax] Ada on VMS, was: Re: Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/21/2018 2:10 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 5/21/2018 11:05 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 5/21/2018 9:28 AM, seasoned_geek wrote:
>>> And let us not forget all of those companies taking the "free"
>>> software then selling support contracts for it.
>>>
>>> Nobody stops to ask "If you didn't write it, just how well can you
>>> support it?"
>>
>> They have access to the source code.
>>
>> They hopefully have people with the right skills.
>>
>> If they don't then they will not survive.
>>
>> Support of open source has little barrier to entry, so it is a
>> rather competitive market.
>>
>> That keeps prices down and quality up for support.
> 
> Prices down, maybe.  Quality, perhaps, and perhaps not.  Consider HPE 
> taking money for support, and consider how well they will support a 
> product they have discarded.

Yes.

But isn't that the result of the situation in the past where
HP was the only one that could offer support?

Now VSI is here. And customers are changing. Which means
that HPE had to decide whether to improve support or get out
of the VMS support market. They chose the latter.

> Support is a matter of trust, and there are entities who should not be 
> trusted.

I will still claim that choices are good.

Arne