FWD: Re: [Web4lib] RE: [ALACOUN:14893] Content Management RFP

[David Dorman]

At 11:06 AM 05/25/2005, Mike Taylor wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 09:39:19 -0400 (EDT)
> > From: Chris Gray <cpgray at library.uwaterloo.ca>
> >
> > > what do you mean by "basic TANSTAAFL lessons"?
> >
> > T here
> > A in't
> > N o
> > S uch
> > T hing
> > A s
> > A
> > F ree
> > L unch
>
>... except that there is.

No there isn't.  There are lunches that someone else pays for, so they are 
freely offered, but the lunch itself is never free.  In assessing the value 
of OS and other forms of cost transference, it is important to keep in mind 
that the real questions are "Who pays?" and "What forms do the payment 
take?" not "Is it free?"

David

>Surely we all by now have enough experience
>of Linux, X11, Firefox, Apache, GCC and the rest to know that
>sometimes there really _is_ a free lunch.  And even when "free"
>doesn't translate to "zero cost", due to the need for transition
>training, customisation, etc., the free lunch is still usually much
>cheaper than the proprietary one.  (I've got to stop mixing these
>metaphors -- I can't tell whether it's making me hungry or confused.)
>
>  _/|_   ___________________________________________________________________
>/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike at miketaylor.org.uk>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
>)_v__/\  "A newly-minted myth: the great snake Soruoboruo tried to
>         swallow itself headfirst.  During the ensuing acrobatics it became
>         disoriented and confused and sought refuge in a cave.  The farther
>         it traveled into the cave, the more cave it discovered ahead
>         of itself.  Although the Cosmic Serpent has no awareness of the
>         fact, the cave is its own cloaca, up which it continually crawls.
>         And so it has become a universal metaphor for politics, Internet
>         discussion groups, and the social sciences." -- Matt Wedel.
>
>--
>Listen to free demos of soundtrack music for film, TV and radio
>         http://www.pipedreaming.org.uk/soundtrack/
>
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David Dorman
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