The Benefits of Open Source Software
As incredible as it appears, there are companies and foundations out there that actively develop and distribute software for no cost. The reason for them giving away their software is varied, but the benefits to the users is immense.
Many years ago in the 70′s, computer hobbyists and nerds would develop software and give it to other geeks for nothing to try and make it better. Along came a man called Bill Gates who saw a entrepreneurial opportunity in building software for computers and designed Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his product was also given away around and he ended up writing a angry letter describing why software should not be free (try Googling Bill Gates Open Letter).
In the past few years, the open source collective has been winning a significant foothold in the software market, probably caused by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Excel, Dreamweaver and even Programming Languages.
There are free versions of probably everything, from e-commerce solutions to images. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now available on the World Wide Web. I am even typing this short article on a piece of open source software called Open Office, a free substitute to MS Word, and it’s powered by Ubuntu, a free alternative to Windows or Mac OS X.
When it comes to the Internet, there is a plethora of open source software around to power any kind of site. Web development companies such as WordPress and Wikimedia Foundation release products free for anyone to use. What makes it incredibly attractive is that open source customization can be done by a number of companies around the globe.
Deciding on open source software to run your site provides a low cost base from which to commence, for example WordPress is fantastic for virtually any sort of website, but with a bit of WordPress customization you can have it meet your exact specifications for a fraction of the price of developing it from the beginning.
Before you buy your next computer programme, always research to discover if there is an open source option available. Especially during these hard times, open source software could be one way you or your company can lower its costs.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 4:44 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.