“Only a fool would trust his business to software that doesn’t
have a clear roadmap for the future.”
“This statement seems to rear its head from time to time these
days. Most of the time, it appears as an objection to the intention
of employing open source software like Linux in a corporate
setting. The absence of someone in a suit who can describe the
long-term direction of an open source project is described by some
people as an insurmountable barrier to the adoption of open source
solutions. Not surprisingly, the people voicing this opinion are
often promoting solutions from commercial vendors which feature a
standard product roadmap. The fact that, in retrospect, these
commercial roadmaps often suffer from major flaws is
immaterial. Rather, it is claimed that the prudent commercial
customer must insist upon a traditional roadmap.”
“But, is a roadmap really essential for software? Is software
with a clear roadmap always superior to software that boasts no
such detailed prognostication of the future?”