Open Source has the luxury of releasing when it's ready,

But OTOH, there is less of a drive to finish things. Don't get me wrong, there is some good open source software around. But there's a lot of crap around as well. There's a lot of bad commercial software, but there's also a lot of good commercial software. "Open Source" doesn't equal good just as "commercial software" doesn't equal bad.

A good support contract can be very valuable. I've had to deal with several vendors giving support. Some vendors were way better than others. Generalizing in the terms of "support contracts never work" isn't very useful.

If I'm in a position were I need to decide to use a product (hardware, software, language, toiletpaper, whatever), I certainly would let the possibility of getting support play a part in the decision. Things just aren't black and white.

Abigail