Open Source
BenefitsOPEN SOURCE (OS) IS CROWD-SOURCED Cost, flexibility, freedom, security, and accountability – that are unsurpassed by proprietary solutions. OS also has long-term viability and is always on the cutting-edge of technology. It’s created and supported by a worldwide community of organizations and individuals, many of whom also live by open source values like collaboration and volunteerism.
CostThe vast majority of OS is freely distributed. But OSS is said to be -free as in kittens- and not -free as in beer- – it requires maintenance, configuration, and ongoing support. The trade-off is flexibility and freedom. Unlike closed proprietary solutions, OSS can be altered and extended by any developer familiar with the source code. This grants organizations freedom from -vendor lock-in- and assures long-term viability. A widely adopted OS project is often supported by hundreds or thousands of capable contributors.
SUPPORTED BY A COMMUNITYThese same development shops are constantly reviewing the OSS code they support, as are thousands of independent developers working on the project worldwide. The result is a vast peer review process that ensures security and accountability. Security holes are found and fixed quickly. While anyone can research shops and developers based on the quality of code they write.
STRONG VALUESAnd more often than not, OSS shops and developers hold similar values. In all aspects of life, they are advocates for more community participation, collaboration, and volunteerism. They believe in working together to build free, high quality products that are accessible to for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike. This belief underlines the mission of the best OSS shops and developers. It pushes them to build new features and contribute these features back to the community. As a direct result, popular OS projects are always on the cutting-edge of technology.
Paradigm ShiftTechnologies and architectures sometimes grow stagnant, and open source projects with fresh thinking can drive sea change. Because whrn technologies are released as open source, the entire ecosystem is able to move forward together, rather than just ‘near by’ domain and its users.