http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html
- Do you use source control?
- Can you make a build in one step?
- Do you make daily builds?
- Do you have a bug database?
- Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
- Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
- Do you have a spec?
- Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
- Do you use the best tools money can buy?
- Do you have testers?
- Do new candidates write code during their interview?
- Do you do hallway usability testing?
But some of the questions have set me to musing.
E.g. 9 Do you use the best tools money can buy?
One might interpret this as saying that it is unreasonable to use free or Open Source tools, if there are tools that can be bought that are better.
But: better is arguable. The fact that something is free, or, better, Open Source, greatly reduces many hassles. E.g. "We can't have your work on XYZZY because that would need a new license."
(By the way: SW can be free but not Open Source, or vice versa. Best if its free and Open Source.)
Joel's examples talk mainly about being wiling to spend money on fast computers for builds and tests, extra monitors, and disk space wars. Mentioning a software tool, a bitmap editor, only as an aside.
But let's talk about SW tools, fre and Open Source.
I think here the proper way to consider this question is "Do you have the latest and greatest versions of the free and Open Source tools you are using installed?"
Or rather, since I am not an advocate of gratuitous feature creep: are you ever held back by lack of a feature in the version of free and Open Source tools you have installed --- that is fixed in more recent, stable, versions that will probably run on your machines?
One of the nice things about virtual machines is that more and more you can have N different distros running, so you can pick which tool versions you need.
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