Is there such a thing as a free lunch?
December 29, 2005
When developers talk about their real world experience with open source technologies then it’s worth taking note: Xooglers, a site run by an ex-Google developer makes the point . When talking about the switch from MySQL as the foundation for Google Adwords to a commercial (read expensive database) and the subsequent performance problems, he says:
"The moral of the story is that sometimes, and in particular with free software, you get more than what you pay for. There are a lot of companies out there paying dearly for commercial databases (and operating systems for that matter). As far as I’m concerned they might as well be flushing that money down the toilet. Actually, they might be better off. We certainly would have been."
When thinking about your practice management and accounts prep packages in particular, doesn’t it occur to you that if they had been developed in a different way, they might not represent the substantial tax you pay every year for the pleasure of automating what should be a relatively simple set of tasks?
In the case of accounts prep, the worst part is you’re paying for something that’s being commoditised. So any value is being constantly eroded anyway. In the case of practice management, there’s nothing there that can’t be done with the new crop of tools that are free or very low cost services. The only difference is that it takes some programming to drop them all into a portal style of presentation. Makes you think doesn’t it?
Comments
One Response to “Is there such a thing as a free lunch?”
Got something to say?
Interesting. Google’s situation is somewhat unique due to the extraordinarily unique system they likely required. Businesses in more mature verticals may have better luck with commercial products, be able to save time to launch, and have a better product based on the many people who’ve worked to make it what it is today.