Many times when we think of OSS we think "cost savings" or “free”... Not so. There are many hidden costs that accompany the integration of OSS into your infrastructure. I’m currently in the process of integrating some OSS into our infrastructure and am really seeing this. Now don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan (and user) of OSS but it’s important to see the big picture when making decisions and planning projects that involve OSS.

One of the hidden costs is learning and configuring. OSS, from what I have seen, seems to be seriously lacking when it comes to ease of use and configurability. Many times OSS is command line based, configuration is in INI style config files. It takes time to read through documentation (Which may be sparse in some cases). I have also found that actually playing around with the app and configuration is in some cases the best way to figure out how to configure and use the software. Again, all of this takes time. On the other hand the pretty app that you pay for will (If it’s any good) have an intelligent installer, very intuitive GUI, and lots of support and documentation. I recently had an experience where I setup one of those “pretty, paid for” apps and I literally had it up and running and configured in a couple of hours. I was totally blown away! If it were OSS it would more than likely taken me a couple of days (Or more) to get in there and figure it out.

Another hidden cost I have seen is maintenance… Many OSS software packages have cryptic or crud management and/or maintenance interfaces. These can be cumbersome and time consuming to work with and can be difficult to get others up to speed on using them. This may also lead to neglect because it’s a pain to work with or others don’t feel they have the time to learn it. The app that you pay for (If it’s any good) will probably have a slick interface to maintain and administer.

Again, I’m not knocking OSS, I think OS development is a wonderful thing. There are a lot of awesome OS projects out there. I also think that OSS fills an important roll in any infrastructure. But when you decide to go the OSS route you can’t be in the mindset that because it’s OS it’s free. You really have to think about the pros and cons and make a decision based on that. In some cases it may actually be cheaper (And more advantageous) to buy instead of going the OSS route.

As a side note, I have heard some balk at “pretty, paid for” apps for various reasons, some valid some not objective at all. But the reality is this: Those days as a single guy staying up all night eating Doritos, drinking Mt Dew and hacking on all kinds of interesting stuff are over. In the real world you have a family, deadlines and clients (both internal and external). Time is really of the essence and you dont have much of it. Your boss or your wife and kids aren’t going to be impressed because you worked OT for 2 weeks learning how to wiz around some cryptic OSS like Kevin Mitnick phreaking a telco switch. The time spent getting to that point may not be worth it or you may not even have it. In many cases “pretty, paid for” equate to steep learning curve, ease of use and maintenance and good support. They also may mean less stress and more time for life’s more important things. It really comes down to making a good business decision that will help your business to succeed, not a decision based on ego that makes you think your The Brain.