Free vs. pay versions

[Rob Hasselbaum]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 11:57 AM, Edward Ned Harvey <blu-Z8efaSeK1ezqlBn2x/YWAg at public.gmane.org>wrote:

>
> Free vs commercial is not always a measure of goodness.  Sometimes
> commercial offerings are better than free offerings, and sometimes it's
> vice-versa.  Depends on how they were engineered mostly, and for what
> purpose and scope.
>

Agreed, and I would add that the trade-off is often less about the technical
merits of the software and more about who's going to support it. Companies
that make the conscious decision to go with free-as-in-beer or community
distros might make that choice because they have the in-house expertise to
support those solutions or the time to wade through community support
channels. But there are others that don't have the time or the personnel to
do that and would rather pay up to make support someone else's problem.