Hmm? I suppose I was unclear. I wasn't making a comment about the relative quality of the software itself- I was pointing out that once you have decided you want to pay for support, for some domains, the for-pay support available for the open-source product is better than the for-pay support available for the closed-source product.
Really, "what level of support do I want to pay for?" is a question you have to answer separately from the "should I use open source or not" question. You can often buy closed source software without support, just like you can often buy support for open source software. The quality of the available support varies quite a lot, and really should be evaluated primarily on the reputation of the company you are buying the support from, but in my experience? proprietary software is not the clear winner in the paid support department.
I actually think that a lot of managers are sold a bill of goods with the "someone to blame" line- The software being closed-source and paid for doesn't automatically mean that the support is any good. I've been in so many situations where we end up needing to call support because something broke, we don't have the source... and a lot of times? well, I (and just about any other sysadmin) could give you really long stories of incompetence.
Really, "what level of support do I want to pay for?" is a question you have to answer separately from the "should I use open source or not" question. You can often buy closed source software without support, just like you can often buy support for open source software. The quality of the available support varies quite a lot, and really should be evaluated primarily on the reputation of the company you are buying the support from, but in my experience? proprietary software is not the clear winner in the paid support department.
I actually think that a lot of managers are sold a bill of goods with the "someone to blame" line- The software being closed-source and paid for doesn't automatically mean that the support is any good. I've been in so many situations where we end up needing to call support because something broke, we don't have the source... and a lot of times? well, I (and just about any other sysadmin) could give you really long stories of incompetence.