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The one and only advantage of open source stems from the very definition.
We have the source.
Disadvantages are huge:
- No responsibility. Apart for a handful of them, nasty bugs are treated with "submit a patch", "do it yourself" etc. Everyone uses SVN, but not everyone understands APR pools.
- Poor quality. Let's face it: your never encounter machine unusable after changing some icons or colors using Windows Control Panel or shell. Not so with Gnome tweak (last example from less than 24 hours) - changing theme to some PPA download rendered the machine unresponsive to Ctrl-Alt-Del. That's Ubuntu Tahr right after update.
Sorry folks, I don't want to use something that does not work (or at least recover !) after two clicks.
- Unfinished business.
I admit, apt-get (since I'm bitching Ubuntu here) was a huge step, but changing the boot priority (and ITEMS, for God's sake !!) is not good. Windows 7 was demoted and position changed, Windows 8 dissapeared completely (and rendered unbootable) etc. etc. etc. Something like this would never happened upgrading from Win7 to Win8.
- Too many configs (continuing). Was it /etc/grub/grub.conf? Or boot.lst? Or ...
Nevermind, I RTFM again. Again meaning "every time". How often BOOT.INI changed? (Ok, BCD semi-replaced it).
- Making software for money makes developers more responsible. Including myself.
When I wrote something for amusement, almost always ended up in some SCM corner, or abandoned. When I billed, the source works even today. And I reply to emails even if project is finished - I simply feel compelled to continue help someone who payed me good money.
%END-OF-BITCHING%
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A thousand times this.
Open Source is clever for the ecosystem of developing software. But as an end user it can really be a horrific nightmare.
And God forbid you get some marketing doofus who sees "Open Source" the same way he sees the word "Cloud" and you end up with nontechnical people demanding their psychotic modifications to a piece of software just because it's possible.
Software needs to be supported day-to-day. For Open Source systems that means you need developers on hand. For commercial systems, that just means you need a "support@" email address and maybe a phone number.
The number of times I've had had to say "I have to go spelunking in the code to see how they did it." is insane.
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Then why in the very first place you download and use the unstable version?
Developers also build a stable version that has a lot of bug fixes too. You should download that, and this way you will next time check all the Yes related items.
Android is way better than iOS. You can easily see the different between both the softwares.
Favourite line: Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up. I am afraid of what will happen to them wolves - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Then why in the very first place you download and use the unstable version?
I'm not sure what do you mean by "unstable version". It's the official release 14.04.1 LTS[^], Trusty Tahr. (Assuming you are talking about my Ubuntu rant). And even so, let me rephrase it:
"Do not f*** with the existing user data". Especially when it's the boot sequence, I'll say.
Android is way better than iOS
Your preference. For me, both of them are awful, since we can call these anything *but* open source. Restricting not only the stores, channels, UI appearance (iOS, and to some point, even droid), but also the APIs? I'm afraid I won't use neither of those shiny things with an API which is inferior to anything; I won't use things that do not have mailslots or named pipes, shared memory, restricts fopen, control processes etc. And if you want viruses, visit Google Store.
What's this, the new NSA? In the name of security let's forbid anything. That indicates me that not only these are not open source, but are bonking real development, too.
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You pointed out something important here. When I think about "usable opensource" I always refer to at most the 0.001% of the content of opensource SCMs out there because most of those SCMs are filled with crap generated by hobbyists without any responsibility (and without any experience in a given field). The rest, the useful content has been generated by professionals with defined purpose and often these professionals are paid to create and maintain that opensource/free stuff as some other people have mentioned it.
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... such as Chromium, SVN, Apache. And Linux itself.
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Any third party software you use needs care and feeding. When you purchase it from somebody else, support is their problem (at a relatively small cost to you). When you get it for free, support and maintenance are your problem.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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Support is only "their problem" as long as the company decides to support their software. Nothing stops them from dropping support or suddenly overcharging for it; even the biggest companies do this.
Back in 2010 I was surprised to learn that Microsoft would drop support for Windows CE in VS2010. Today our company is still based on Windows CE, but with limited support from Microsoft. We still have to use VS2008. that means there is no C++11 let alone C++14, there no .NET Compact Framework 4.5, there is no Ctrl+Comma to search for files and symbols, no NuGet support, etc.
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I presume you don't use code downloaded from this site? 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Ah yes I do but I am aware of the costs of it. Really if I use code from CP in my work, then I become the support person for it.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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use the correct tool for the job.
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It depends more on the piece in question than on the openness.
A few security fiasco lately told us that there aren't to many eyes there, despite advertised as.
Most coherent application started as proprietary, or got support from the big players to be successful. Small developer bases usually left out functionality due to lack of manpower, or lack of perspective from the users' point.
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Gimp 2
Audacity
Open Office (etc.)
Codecs and viewers and editors and converters
And, by and large, without an agenda.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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| .
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The answer is no because it asked if "open source was better". If the question had been turned around to "is proprietary better" the answer would still be no. There a gems in open source and proprietary, and there is a lot of garbage in both areas as well.
For me the dividing line isn't open source vs proprietary, the line has more to do with quality. Wait, did I just end up saying that higher quality software is better? Now I sound as ridiculous as this poll 
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Open source not professional due to anyone could edit it which could lead to disasters ...
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When we say 'Open source' it is really open to all for edit and that's why many people apply their 'fabulous' mind and make it even better each time and this process goes on day by day but its not happen with the case of proprietary software,
I think Open Source software is always better cause it used by 'mass' peoples so 'mass' problem may occur and 'mass' solutions will create.
Find More .Net development tips at : .NET Tips
The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
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I think you in other words wanted to say this
http://opensource.org/osd[^]
Favourite line: Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up. I am afraid of what will happen to them wolves - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Open source softwares
Used more than bunch of softwares (uncompleted list) :
Frequently used : Notepad++, Aptana Studio(Thanks to Lynda tutors), Apache Openoffice, Firefox, VLC, Sumatra PDF, CamStudio, Lightscreen,
No so frequent, but .... : Synfig, Blender, GIMP, Krita, SQLite,
And JavaScript libraries. I hope most of you heard that some popular open source softwares(KeePass, AForge.NET, etc.,) has been developed by CP members.
I like Open source softwares, because(apart from it's free)
0) Documentations
1) Support - Forums. Volunteering!
2) Samples, tutorials everywhere in web.
3) Good, nice alternative for proprietary softwares.
Proprietary softwares
Here few cases. In past(5+ years ago), I have used bunch of 3rd party development tools & it was really terrible. I don't want to name.
0) Grid control for Web - Really terrible. Buggy. We replaced that with other control quickly.
1) UI suite for Web - In workplace, they bought this because it was cheaper than other suites but later they acknowledged their mistake. We didn't get quick support from product team, never(except auto response mails).
2) GPS(map db) for web - Not good. Js API - it was hard to debug  . They had a forum but found only couple of threads(welcome, some sticky). No good support from them. We found bunch of bugs on their application & informed them to fix.
I think some people did select "No" option for this survey because of cases like above.
For development, I use Express editions of Visual studio & SQL server at home which is enough.
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I am not a fan of open source libraries such as many of the JavaScript libraries available today. But I am a big fan of software such as FireFox.
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Better quality ? Sometimes
Lower cost ? Usually ( Open source is not immune to support costs)
More features ? Cant decide . Sometimes features are prioritised over stability , sometimes not.
More dependable ? Mostly no , few long term support options except for larger open source projects.
More prone to the whims of fashion ? Definitely
Better documentation and training ? Sometimes , some are excellent many are god awful.
Access to the source code ? Yep , and that may be useful for some projects and a complete irrelevancy for others .
More innovative solutions ? Quite often
So despite requests to the contrary 'It Depends' is the only realistic answer .
Some of the best technologies I use are open source , but so are some of the worst .
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Of course there are some good open source software projects I use. But many projects are buggy. Daily new features even if the old ones don't work. Then often there is a time when the project stagnate.
I think there are some real good open source projects but there are a lot of that can't be endorsed.
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No here as well. Open source and proprietary software have their own pros and cons; and because every situation is different you cannot honestly say one is better than the other.
On the one hand, you can say that open source lets you make your changes. However, how many people really have the time for that? That's not to mention that the majority of users won't have the skill to change it. On the other hand, open source tends to get updated on the whim of its creator.
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Ingo wrote: But many projects are buggy. Daily new features even if the old ones don't work. Then often there is a time when the project stagnate.
Can't all of this be said for closed source software?
John
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That's the reason I really don't like, use and support Open Source!
The idea behind seems to be a nice one, but sometimes there is too much confusion due to amount of the constantly changes
and the lack of circulation of necessary information... 
modified 18-Aug-14 4:01am.
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