How can a hardware / software vendor be trusted versus a community
source vendor who had made his money in something other than
computers.

And there should be huge money ----------- like kick-starting the
entire global economy --------- in porting all the huge financial
packages especially SAP AND ORACLE FINANCIALS to open-source.

You then don't get nickeled and dimed to death for what the vendor
takes your corporate secrets from you and gives them to everybody else
anyway.

CHECK SAPSCRIPT DEBUGGING. 6 years ago I asked an old woman programmer
in Minneapolis / Toro --- contracting there --- how she knew so much
of SAPSCRIPT DEBUGGING --------------- she said that is nothing but my
old IBM software similar.

SO WHAT IS SAP at the core ?

Erach