Open source takes no hostages

Sam Varghese
Friday, 12 June 2009 07:36

Opinion and Analysis

MS Money has its own file extensions . The user is locked in - unless he or she decides to keep using an old version. But at some point, the usefulness of that version will run out as laws change.

Will Microsoft now consider releasing the source code for Money so that someone else can take it and run with it if they so wish? Do I hear cynical laughter?

It's small compensation to any user that the company "remains committed to helping customers chart a course to financial well-being." Or that the reason for abandoning the package was because "banks, brokerage firms and Web sites (are) now providing a range of options for managing personal finances."

Had this been an open source package, the story would have been different. The code would have been available to anyone who wanted it; if nothing else, the file formats would have been known and would, by now, have been reproduced in other packages.

Once a file format is in wide use, then the ordinary user is spared a lot of pain. Open source, more or less, guarantees that.

The kick in the guts from the withdrawal of Money is worse because it will affect a type of user without deep pockets. A big company would be less affected if only because it would have the necessary finances to pay someone to re-enter all the data - provided a hard copy had been retained.

Or if that wasn't the case, a big company would even be able to hire someone to write a module that would convert the files - if the details of the file formats were available. Will Microsoft make that available?
I doubt it.

As the old saying goes, people generally appreciate the water when the well goes dry. Similarly, people only see the value of open file formats and open source when they encounter a situation like that created by the withdrawal of MS Money.

By then it is too late for regrets. One can only hope that the next time, people have better sense.