What Makes Good Software?

I had a very interesting email conversation with a friend of mine last night (Thanks, Lenny!).

It was about the true value of open source, and why I’m always pursuing open source software. The realizations that I came to are worth conveying. They will help guide the creation of the Open Forum Foundation’s software projects as well as give some bearings when trying to figure out what software we should we be using in-house for our own needs – you know, which accounting package and which constituent relations manager, etc.

What I realized was that the values I seek in software are:

Quality. This includes reliability, functionality, support, and design.
Open data. A good program should keep you on the strengths of its merits, not the difficulties associated with leaving it. I don’t want to be trapped when the new, better program comes around and/or the current one stops doing things well. We all know that this happens, but are often stuck in the program that we’ve committed to.
Longevity. The program is built around a profitable business model or a diverse enough community that it is sustainable. This is one way in which open source can be important. For instance, I’m not bothered that Gmail is closed source because google is providing a good service for free and profiting from it, so there is security there. However, WordPress and Mediawiki need to be open source because that enables and strengthens the community around them to give the projects longevity. This also references the quality aspect of the product in terms of the support that is available for solving any problems that may come up. And we all know that they will – that’s the nature of software.
Price. Obviously, this leads to the fact that free is better than expensive and what is it that you are paying for? It seems that my real objection to ‘mainstream’ software has to do with the licensing model. The software-as-a-service (eg salesforce.com) and open source models are both attractive to me because when you pay, you pay for something tangible. You define what you want or need – hosting or support or customization – it is provided to you, both sides benefit. But the idea of paying for a license to a product is not attractive to me. Now, I don’t mean to imply that this has no value, but rather that successful execution in the past does not mean a successful product for today. This ties in to the final value that I seek in software.
No evil. This needs to be more than just a mantra, it needs to show in what the company does, their licensing practices, and the evolution of their software. If they’re the biggest company in the industry, are they spending their resources on developing things that no one else could afford to do? Or are they monopolizing the industry and actually suppressing innovation. I believe that the licensing model of software makes it possible for the latter to occur. Exactly what line needs to be crossed into evil is a tricky call to make, but something that we can at least be aware of as we search for the right software or attempt to create our own.

I hope that you found this interesting. Let me know what you think in the comments – did I miss something important? Did I overstate my case?

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Wayne Moses Burke
September 18th, 2008 2:20 pm
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