| |
What does "Free" Software mean?
According to the Free Software Foundation , "Free software is a matter of liberty not price." It's all about the freedom to use, modify and distribute software outside of any proprietary framework. There is much literature behind free software and open source. Eric Raymond wrote the seminal paper, the Cathedral and the Bazaar , which describes how proprietary software is developed (the cathedral), how open source software is developed (the bazaar) and how one is inherently better than the other.
What is Open Source?
Generically, open source refers to the availability of the source code. However there are many types of "open source". Over the years, developers, software companies and organizations have developed a plethora of licenses to address how their software may be used and distributed. The most widely used open sources licenses are GPL, LGPL, Mozilla, Apache and BSD. Each license contains specific clauses regarding how modified code may be used, how the software may be distributed and how to handle the copyright notices. There are many legal implications to using open source components in proprietary software projects and it is very important for organizations to understand these implications so as to avoid any issues down the line. Contact us for more information on open sources licenses and their legal implications.
Implications of the Open Source distribution model
It is our belief that the open source movement has increased the quality, quantity and sophistication of software available on the market today. The movement has also spawned new business models, particularly the dual-license model and the application service model. Managed application hosting services are becoming a more important part of the services portfolio of system integrators and consultants. Signing up for managed hosting services allows organizations to focus on workflow optimization and new functionality that will drive competitive advantage. Contact us for more information on our managed hosting services.
Successful open-source projects include: MySQL AB , SugarCRM, Mozilla/Firefox, JBoss, Asterisk, Apache and the Linux Kernel. There is no official count of the number of open source projects in existence but we estimate it numbers in tens of thousands, in the English language alone. Open source has also driven the development of multi-lingual application structures, which we expect will become a key feature in the next 5-10 years.
Another notable side-effect of the open source movement, is the genesis of countless online communities and, very interestingly, how complete strangers from all corners of the globe are independently organizing themselves and communicating with each other. These online communities are used for technical support and exchanging ideas and are the backbone of the open source movement.
When should open source components be considered?
In general, organizations looking to deploy systems for internal use have great flexibility in terms of the breadth of software available. However, selecting the right open source project can be daunting due to the sheer quantity of projects out there. The maturity of the project, development activity, commitment of the primary developers, the size and interest level of the online community, the suitability and applicability of the software to a particular project, and the legal licensing issues should all be considered when evaluating open source projects for a software effort. Furthermore, how does one compare multiple projects? Even once a project has been selected, any customization must be properly managed so that the official branch of code does not conflict with the customized branch.
Our open source department researches, catalogs and stays current on major open source projects related to content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management systems (CRM), enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), voice over IP (VoIP), operating systems (OS), application servers (AS), and projects involving information delivery using application-specific protocols such as HTTP and FIX.
Our clients should be made aware that while the cost of acquiring the source code for an open source project is close to zero, the engineering costs could be tangible. Therefore it makes sense to identify and evaluate any open source components before using them in a proprietary application.
|
|
