What is Open Source?

The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing. (www.opensource.org)

Who's using Open Source?

Everyone of us! Nearly 70% of web traffic is made possible by the Open Source web server: Apache. So, in the majority of cases every time we use the web, we use Open Source!

• Europe leads the world in the use of the Open Source web browser: Firefox.

• On a global scale the list of businesses and organisations using Open Source in different aspects of IT is endless.
• Here's a few: NASA, Google, Amazon, PayPal, Thawte, Yahoo!, Morgan Stanley, French Ministry of Defence.

Open Source software is supported by major industry vendors, such as IBM, HP, Novell, Computer Associates, Sun Microsystems and Oracle.

Open Source software is not all or nothing

• we can help you find the areas which benefit you and,
• how it can be integrated with existing systems

What is Open Source?

Within the IT world, the traditional view of computers is that you buy the hardware and then you buy the software. This view is supported by a culture in which you buy a license for a software package for each computer; you have ten computers, you buy ten licenses.
This common way of licensing software has a few core problems:

• You need to keep paying for the same product on a number of computers. When you buy the product you are essentially paying to use that product's functionality and features. Why should you have to keep paying to use the product on more than one computer?
• If you have an idea for an improvement that you would like to see in the software, the only way to potentially get that improvement included is to contact the company that created the software and ask for it to be included in the next release that you will again need to buy a license for. The source code (the building blocks of how the program was created) is not included with most commercial software tools and you don't have the option to modify the program and improve it yourself or by employing a developer to do this for you. The company who make the software have complete control over how it develops.

A new way of thinking

Open Source software changes this way of licensing software. Open Source provides the following benefits:

• The vast majority of Open Source software is entirely free. This means that you don't have the pay for the software (you can download it from the Internet), or some companies will create a boxed product that provides the software on a CD/DVD and printed manuals/support. The software is still free, it is just that the company providing the boxed product are supplying you with a product as opposed to a download from the Internet.
• You don't need to worry about paying for a new license for each computer. With Open Source, you can take a single disc containing Open Source and install it on as many computers as you want. Aside from the reduction of license fees (the software is free anyway), you also don't need to worry about audit costs and possibly using software that has been copied illegally onto a number of computers.
• Open Source software has the source code available with it. This can be particularly useful if you are looking for an approximate tool that could be useful for you and then spending some time improving it so it fits your specific needs. this has been particularly popular for Content Management Systems (CMS) in which you can take a comprehensive web application and then hook it directly into your needs.

Open Source essentially provides far more flexibility not just in how you can obtain and use the software for free and on any computers, but in how you can improve the software for your own needs if required.

Better software

Another core benefit of Open Source is how it is created. In the traditional closed source world where the code is only available to a limited set of developers working for the software manufacturer, the code gets seen by a limited set of people, and the same people see it over and over again. This can often result in the developers not seeing errors and as such, potentially overlooking problems. With closed sourced commercial software, there is an additional risk that the software is driven by the marketing department of the organisation and not necessarily driven by what consumers want. This is part of the reason why there is so much clutter in commercial software; the organisations need to keep adding features to encourage people to buy the product, even though you probably only use 30% of what is there.

In the Open source world, the availability of the code means that far more developers see it. This results in more eyes looking at the code all around the world and far more people spotting problems and bugs. The effect of more eyes on the code means that bug-fixes are developed far more quickly. In contrast to the often multiple-month long delays for bug fixes in the closed sourced world, bugfix releases for Open Source software are often released within hours or days of the bug being spotted. With Open Source software being independent to a specific software company, you also get the benefit that the features added to the software are added because they are useful for the users.

Courtesy of Open Advantage