What are some rules for designing a mixed stack with open source and proprietary software?
Don Rosenberg: In the old days, the same vendor sold you your hardware, operating system and apps, and you had no choice. If you still like buying it all in the same place, Sun and IBM are still happy to oblige. While some people like buying the “best of breed” for various applications, there is also a tendency to like simplified choices. The office suite, for instance, gives you once of each kind of commonly-used desktop software. Not only do customers like this simplified approach but many vendors like it, too. The software stack presents us with the same sort of problem: best-of-breed or single-supplier? It is widely-distributed industry standards (and open standards) that have pushed the software stack, the ability to pick OS, utility layer, databaseand applications. The vendor faces the same pressures and choices as you in how the stack is constructed. The crucial difference is that the vendor is likely to wrap his stack tightly to discourage you from tampering with it (that’s wha
