The Advantages of Open Source Software

As fantastic as it sounds, there are infact businesses and foundations around the world that actively create and syndicate software for no cost. The reason for them giving away their software depends on company to company, but the advantages to the users is immense.

Many years ago in the 70′s, computer hobbyists and nerds would programme software and distribute it to others for nothing to try and improve it. That was until a man called Bill Gates who saw a business opportunity in developing software for computers and built Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his software was also pirated around and he ended up writing a long letter pointing out why software should not be free (try Googling Bill Gates Open Letter).

In recent years, the open source collective has been gaining a large slice in the software market, essentially driven by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Word, Dreamweaver and even Programming Languages.

There are free versions of just about everything, from e-commerce solutions to email clients. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now free on the World Wide Web. I am actually writing this short article on a piece of open source software called Open Office, a free substitute to MS Word, and it’s running on Ubuntu, an open source alternative to Windows or Mac OS X.

When it comes to the Internet, there is a plethora of free around to run any kind of site. Web development companies such as WordPress and Wikimedia Foundation release solutions free for companies to use. What makes it very effective is that open source customization can be done by a number of companies around the globe.

Deciding on open source software for your website sets up a fantastic base from which to commence, take for example WordPress is fantastic for probably any kind of site, but with a bit of WordPress customization you can have it meet your exact requirements for a fraction of the price of creating it from scratch.

Before you purchase your next script, always research to discover if there is an open source option available. Especially relevant during these hard times, open source software may be one way you or your company can drive down its costs.

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