Open source vs. closed source
It often falls down to a very colorful discussion when the open-source versus closed-source topic appears. Which one is better?
Without Unix and Apache, there would probably be no cheap internet. But without Microsoft or Oracle, there would probably be no online finance management.
And so there’s no simple answer to questions such as open vs. closed, wireless vs. wired, or diesel vs. petrol.
You can get a diesel engine with a 1,5x higher torque than on a comparable petrol one, but you can’t ignore that it’s also 400 pounds heavier. With the additional weight on the axle, you need to hack a problem. Yet providing the hack brings even another new problem.
With any additional benefit added to the system, there almost always comes at least one drawback. The world of economy, engineering and inventions is not perfect. There is no ideal product. We make tradeoffs every day and just prefer to use those which suck less in the given conditions.
So the next time you’re deciding between solutions, don’t ask which one is better. Ask which sucks less for the target use. Sticking to one just for the sake of belief is blindly risky.
