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Throughout its history there have been many inaccuracies, legends, and myths actively developed by both commercial technology companie, that fear the market impact of Open Source, and many of the core founders themselves. Here, we attempt to address the more commercially oriented myths.

Myth - There is no quality control in free software

It is true the there is typically little fixed quality control processes but generally only stable code is accepted into an Open Source application by the project maintainers. Also, with sometimes hundreds of developers reviewing code, this exemplifies the phrase, "Many eyes make for shallow bugs". And, because Open Source developers know that their code is going to be publicly available for review they tend to put extra effort into is robustness and stability.

Myth - There is no product direction

Open Source project maintainers typically start an Open Source project to solve a specific need and grow the project to meet other or increasing needs over time. They tend to have very specific roadmaps and accept feature and functionality input from other interested developers.

Myth - Open Source/Linux projects will splinter like Unix did

Although there is a possibility of this occurring the major interested commercial parties and some key customers are supporting standard Linux base and have received the cooperation of every main Linux distributor.
Additionally, when it comes to Open Source applications, the community promotes common platform development through the very well defined and organized Open Source project development model.

Myth - No support/lack of support

In the earlier days of Linux and Open Source's commercial adoption this might have been the case, but today there are a number of support options. All major Linux distributors and most major OEM's provide comprehensive support plans. An example of deep support is Oracle's recently announced "Unbreakable Linux" where Oracle is taking full support for any problem on a Linux platform that has Oracle products deployed. Additionally, the Open Source community provides support for many major applications and there are numerous independent companies that provide technical support. And one of the biggest benefits of Open Source is the ability to provide self-support if desired.

Myth - Open Source Software costs nothing

Although there are fully functional versions of Open Source applications that do cost nothing, these generally are not commercially supported and may not have adequate documentation or technical support. To develop, deploy, and maintain Open Source software costs, just like any other software. In many cases the advantages enumerated previously significantly reduce costs but financial expenditures must be taker into account.