The Frugal Side of Commercial Software

“The critics of commercial software raise some interesting
points concerning innovation. It’s often said that commercial
software isn’t as innovative as its open source counterparts. I
assume this is because paid developers are somehow restricted from
being clever or imaginative. The paycheck they receive must be a
left-brain dampener, and the only programmers who enjoy a creative
spark are the exalted and righteous volunteer hackers.

“Commercial ventures seek innovation, too, but they have a
product to produce, programmers to pay and customers to support.
There isn’t an egregious lack of innovation but rather a calculated
amount of it. When it comes to innovation in the commercial
software space, how many pieces of software can you name that are
both commercial and absolute best-of-breed in a category? How about
Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Oracle databases, HP OpenView,
IBM WebSphere and Microsoft Windows?”

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