dotProject

I'm often asked "Why should I use dotProject instead of <insert project management software of your choice here>.  They tell me it is an upgrade/massive improvement/gift from God".  My answer is always the same.  I don't comment on other projects.  If you want to use their product, fine. If you want to use dotProject, fine.  If you ask me what are the features of dotProject, I am only too happy to tell you.  If you ask me how they compare to another, I'll tell you I can't tell you. This often causes confusion/dismay/anger or a range of emotions in the questioner.

Open source is full of projects of variable quality and purpose.  Which one you choose should be up to you.  In general you can download for free, or try out a demo, and look for plenty of independent assessments on what features map to those of another project.  What you are asking me is to do your homework for you.  What you are expecting is a dispassionate, reasoned set of arguments showing why my project is better or worse than another.  Are you really that naive?  Nobody is dispassionate about their code.  If they were they would not be coding open source.  I cannot give you unbiased advice, and certainly cannot compare my project to another without some level of bias.  So I won't do it.

Now this brings us to those that do proffer comparisons and wax lyrically about their project versus another.  You have to ask yourself why would they be doing this?  To my mind there are only a few options, and they can be summarised as Arrogance, Jealousy, Petulance, and Profit.  Now remember, I'm talking open source here, I don't make any money off of this code, so I don't really have much of an incentive to get heaps of people using it and demanding free support from me unless I have some level of arrogance myself.  I do.  But I try to keep that to myself and not let it influence others.  Those that proselytise have a different sort of arrogance, one that does not extend to respect, only to self interest.   Jealously and Petulance are juvenile reactions to what is seen as the more popular kid in school (or a variation on that theme,) something I've grown out of a long time ago.  Profit is something that I really don't care much about in my open source work.  I don't do it for profit. I do it to scratch an itch.  I don't do it to prove that others are no good, I do it to prove to myself that I am.  If you use my code, great, that validates me.  If you don't, great, that means there are other great programs out there, and great programmers.  But don't do it because the programmer tells you it is great, do it because the software works for you, and you can only determine that by investigation and trial.