[Paraview] Re: ParaView and Ensight - why think like that?

[Dan White]

On 10 Nov 2006, at 19:00, paraview-request at paraview.org wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 18:55:18 -0300
> From: "Renato N. Elias" <rnelias at nacad.ufrj.br>
> Subject: [Paraview] ParaView and Ensight
> To: <paraview at paraview.org>
> Message-ID: <006401c70449$bfe68db0$6500a8c0 at neutron>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> Hi people,
>
> I think ParaView has been annoying some CEI's guys out there
>
> http://www.cfd-online.com/Forum/main.cgi?read=49375
>
> Look at this:
> "...ParaView has been developed at a great expense to US taxpayers  
> at DOD
> and DOE labs, then is given away freely to anyone on the planet. If  
> you pay
> taxes in the US, I am sure that you find this as disagreeable as do
> we...(Kent Misegades President, CEI Inc.)"
>
> This is the worst argument I've ever seen... how disgusting... :-(
>
> Renato.
>
> p.s.: this message is not to inflame anyone. It's just to show how  
> dirty
> someone can be to recover his "mine of gold", which has been  
> vanishing...


It baffles me that people are still trying to sell software for big  
dollars, when open source
stuff is always going to be right on their heels and free.

Surely it is obvious that the modern way to run a software business  
for non turnkey applications
(ie not games, and some industrial applications)
is to sell books/detailed docs/install CDs, Tshirts etc,
  and most importantly sell knowledge and experience in the form of  
consultation.
Open source software like VTK is great,
but even better is talking to someone who knows it inside out.

I'd rather our lab paid 10000 dollars for a couple of months of  
expert input in to software development
than buy a single license for proprietary software that only does  
half the stuff you want.

The old business model is dead, because of how easy it now is for any  
kid with a computer
and some programming skills to knock out pretty good functional GUI  
software in a couple of months,
with the help of existing open source tools like python and VTK.

I dont know why these companies dont just go open source and help  
themselves and everyone else.

Same things are happening in the biomedical imaging field.
A few companies are trying to squeeze big cash out of publicly funded  
research labs
for single user licenses. I know they dont sell that many of them as  
they are far too expensive.
Why not work together on the software development, and then use their  
vast expertise in imaging,
image analysis and 3D graphics to actually go help researchers  
achieve their scientific goals
as consultants and charge for that. Then the researchers really are  
getting something for their money.

just my 2 cents (no pun intended)

Dan

Dr. Daniel James White BSc. (Hons.) PhD
Bioimaging Coordinator
Nanoscience Centre and Department of Biological and Environmental  
Sciences
Division of Molecular Recognition
Ambiotica C242
PO Box 35
University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä
FIN 40014
Finland

+358 14 260 4183 (work)
+358 468102840 (mobile)
http://www.bioimagexd.org
http://www.chalkie.org.uk
dan at chalkie.org.uk
white at cc.jyu.fi