Why Users Dumped Your Open Source App for Proprietary Software

"So I asked several people, especially open-source-friendly techies, about the times they seriously experimented with or used an open source app â€" and ended up using a proprietary application after all. I'm not speaking of a "trial" scenario in which someone downloaded an open source app, poked at it for a couple of hours, and decided, 'Eh.' I'm thinking more about situations in which they (or the department, or the company) were prepared to commit to using the software (for personal or business purposes) and decided on a non-open-source option instead.

"My aim is not to diminish open source; quite to the contrary. My view is that â€" to use ordinary marketing terms â€" to sell an open source app you have to understand and respond to the sales objections. An open source project (or at least those in it who are thinking, 'How do we get more users?') has to understand the ways in which it might 'lose to the competition' before it can address the problem."

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