On 4/26/07, Andrews, Mark J. <MarkAndrews_at_creighton.edu> wrote:
> ... Evergreen and Koha ...appear as overblown science projects from
> somebody's garage - somebody had to pay for the kernel of those
> products to be developed. The money spent to create Evergreen and
> Koha was not spent on commercial products, hence the "stick" -
> commercial vendors didn't get business they otherwise might have had.
>
You do realize where every single "commercial" (read: proprietary) ILS
came from, right? Quite litterally as overblown science projects in
academia. The only major one that might have been an entirely
private, non-academic effort was just trashed by the vendor that
commissioned it's creation -- Horizon 8. And I'm pretty sure you
meant proprietary, not commercial. Evergreen and Koha are both
commercial products with companies specializing in there development
and support.
I think it would behoove us all to remember the /actual/ history of
the ILS and not the "idealized" proprietary-knight-in-shining-armor
version that is espoused by the marketing slicks of traditional
vendors. And maybe, just maybe, don't knock any options until you
actually try them.
Remember folks, this list is about finding and creating MORE options,
not trying to knock options off the table with inaccurate (if not
ill-intentioned) rhetoric.
--
Mike Rylander
Received on Thu Apr 26 2007 - 08:53:33 EDT