I was reading this FUD whitepaper just a while back, in which they are saying OSS is unsuitable for enterprises, unscalable, untested, insecure, etc.
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/middleware/cloud-app-found...
And then this.
And then this.
HMRC's systems are pretty good these days as well (I just did my tax return online). Relatively smooth process for a large Java behemoth.
What they're specifically saying is that government is not the ideal entity to be shepherding OSS projects. More specifically - Large Scale OSS projects that require a rigorous process and are mission critical. They observe that OSS Projects exhibit high quality primarily (though not exclusively) when there is a large financial motive to make the project high quality. (E.g. Linux, Firefox, and the other big hits).
Now, Oracle might be against-OSS in general, but this paper is not the "FUD" that you're looking for.
1. Oracle is embracing and offering open source solutions as a viable way to complete simple software projects and as an adjunct to the development and deployment of more complex projects that are based on commercial software.
- Open source for tiny projects. Oracle for the real work. Got it.
2. Another key issue facing government acquisition executives is the issue of indemnification. When a software company provides a product to its customers, it is expected to stand by its product, and is legally required to do so. In the case of open source, there are remarkably few companies willing or able to offer indemnification for their “products.”
- There are several open source companies, which stand by their "products", and offer support contracts.
3. Load testing, system performance tuning, and system optimization are also expensive tasks. Commercial software companies have developed highly refined methodologies to perform these tasks.
- I've worked some with Oracle databases. Most organizations are paying through the nose for little benefit; management loves whitepapers like this.
4. Oracle licenses commercial software to fill the gaps where open source does not fully address enterprise capability requirements. Automated Deployment & Provisioning ...Extreme Performance, High Availability, & Scalability
- Ok.
5. If you are concerned with vendor lock-in, and you see open source solutions as a means of “owning” the code you want to run, a quick glance at the Open Source Initiative (OSI) can be daunting. Nearly 100 licensing regimes have gone through the license approval process. Open source is not free, nor is it easy to understand the strict legal terms and conditions associated with its use.
- I've found the popular OSS licenses quite simple to understand and there are excellent explanations available; Most Open Source apps use one of these, though there might be 100 which are OSI approved.
6. And finally, the biggest one. The VA story.
- https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal
Edit: OSI Licensing(5)
Your characterization implies that the main theme of the paper is "OSS is unsuitable for enterprises, unscalable, insecure, etc". Please find me a single line in the PDF YOU linked to that implies "OSS is unsuitable for enterprises, unscalable and insecure".
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> And finally, the biggest one. The VA story. - https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal
How incredibly dishonest of you. You've presented all your evidence as simply your own assertions, experience and anecdotes. Where is YOUR data?
Lets examine your own words :-
>"There are several open source companies, which stand by their "products", and offer support contracts"
Several? How many? Out of how many in total? What contracts have you looked at? How do they compare to other contracts offered to DoD by non-open source companies?
>I've worked some with Oracle databases. Most organizations are paying through the nose for little benefit;
That is your experience and assertion. Why should anyone care? Are you a well known person in the database domain whose opinion is widely respected?
>I've found the popular OSS licenses quite simple to understand and there are excellent explanations available; Most Open Source apps use one of these, though there might be 100 which are OSI approved.
Okay so YOU have found them simple. Again why is your anectdote and experience so superior? Are you a well known licensing expert? --------------------
See, its rather easy to accuse someone of FUD, its another thing to actually provide evidence beyond some vague arguments. :)
Every large commercial software company is just as bad. It was only a few years ago that Microsoft were doing the same, until they realised they could monetize open source software themselves[1] as well and decided to stop the badmouthing.
[1] through azure and buying into major open source ecosystems to gain mindshare.