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Open Source Software
What is Open Source software?
What kind of license is needed to use Open Source software?
What is behind the Open Source concept?
Is Open Source software really free?
What are some of the characteristics of Open Source software?
What kind of support can one expect from Open Source?
Why doesn't everyone use Open Source software?
What are some examples of good Open Source software?
What really makes up the Open Source community?
What is the speed of development of Open Source software?
What is the quality of Open Source software?
What is Open Source software?
It is any software whose source code is available without restriction for users to look at and modify. It is software that is built and enhanced through public collaboration and therefore it is available free of charge.
What kind of license is needed to use Open Source software?
The license provides the right to have the source code, change the source code, run and distribute the program. When you modifying Open Source software you must agree to provide others the same rights over the alterations you perform to the code.
Some licenses prohibit users from putting all or part of the Open Source code into proprietary licensed software, the rational being that vendors should not profit from the community�s work.
What is behind the Open Source concept?
The idea is that many people working together are better than a single group, and that problems are found faster by a community of users and that solutions that truly address the communities needs are developed by the contributors.
In addition, individuals or companies are willing to invest in an alteration, even if they are costly, believing that they while they provide those enhancements free to the community, others will do the same. The idea is that the collective contributions provide much more value than what any on party adds to it. This guarantees everyone gets more than they paid for. Some refer to this a �gift economies�.
Is Open Source software really free?
Yes, it is fee in as much as you don�t have to pay for the license. Does this mean that there is no cost for its use? No. The use of software always has a cost, even that which we obtain for free. There is always time and effort put into training. If you are an individual running your own home business in evening and weekends the cost might not be even perceivable. If you are a large corporation the cost of training many individual and making integrations to other company systems might be high, however, in either case you have no cost for the license.
What are some of the characteristics of Open Source software?
- Control resides with the user
- Highly stable
- Proven security
- End-User input to evolving functionality
- Excellent quality
- Highly flexible
- No or reduced License Fees
- No vendor lock-in
- Self-determined upgrade path
- Can run on less expensive hardware
- Very cost-effective
- Freedom of vendor choice
- Fast development cycles
- Ongoing evolution
from Engaging with the Open Source Community (Part One)
What kind of support can one expect from Open Source?
There are plenty of contractors who will support you. They have expertise in the language the code is written in and they make money from those that want to make alterations to the code to tailor it to their institutional use or to contribute some enhancements. Many of these contractors are highly skilled. You should not think that just because its Open Source software that it was developed only by weekend hackers.
In fact, many of these contracts might have work hard to develop the code in the first place. Going Open Source and building a community of users is just their business model.
Why doesn't everyone use Open Source software?
Many people don�t understand the concept or perceive it to be risky because they fear support is not reliable. The fact is that support for Open Source software is greatly affected by the vitality of the community of users. It is also affected by the contractors involved. I find Open Source to be every bit as reliable as commercially �purchasable� software and often more. If you purchase and LMS, for example and the vendor goes out of business and hands you the code, you might not find many to support it. That has not happened with Open Source software.
What are some examples of good Open Source software?
- FireFox: a web browser
- OpenOffice: A full office suite
- Thuderbird: e-mail package
- SendMail: e-mail software
- Atutor: a Learning Content Management System
- Linux: a well known operating systems
- Apache: server software
- FileZilla: an FTP client
- VNC: remote access software
- Speak Freely: Internet telephoney software
- 7-Zip: file compression
Go next page for articles and links.
What is the speed of development of Open Source software?
Given the lose association of the individuals in the community one might have expected uneven and slow development. In reality the opposite is true. Because there are so many people working on the software, and because they focus on the areas of most pressing interest, development is fast especially on issues of concern to many of the members of the community.
The fact is that Open Source communities have developed software much faster than their commercial counterparts. When I first looked at LCMSs commercial software was clearly ahead. Two years later Open Source LCMSs have caught up and in some instances are ahead of many commercially available systems. Linux, for example, typically puts out a new release every 18 months vs. Windows which does so every 3 years.
What is the quality of Open Source software?
Quality tends to be high in spite of the frequent releases. The large number of eyes in the community probably account for so many bugs being caught early on and addressed quickly. Commercial developers tend to try to hide their software shortcomings until a later date. In Open Source focus is brought upon the bugs to resolve them as there is no financial interest prompting anyone to hide such bugs, on the contrary, the community has a vested interest in having things fixed as soon as possible.
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