Open source software is basically software that is free and makes its 'source code' available to anyone. This means that users can make changes or fix problems as long as they in turn make them available to everyone. This process creates an ongoing evolution of the software that is self perpetuating allows the community of users to guide its direction.

An example:

Star Office was a product that competed directly with Microsoft Office as a commercial product. Since their market share was much smaller than MS Office they could not afford to employ as many developers or sales people as MS and the product went slowly backwards. The owners of Star Office could see the writing on the wall and decided that their was no commercial future in it. Instead of just binning the product they decided to release it as opensource. Now anybody could contribute and a lot of people did. So much so that open office is a free product with comparable functionality to MS Office and it is free.

Whats does this mean for my business?

The example above is only one example of software that has been opensourced and evolving over the past 15 years. There is a massive amount of this software available and it is extremely functional. There is an opensource equivalent for almost every commercial package and the integration between the commercial packages and opensource ones is often seamless. Because it is not hindered by distribution and licensing it allows a businesses to access functionality they would not otherwise be able to afford.

An example:

Say you wanted to give your staff of 5 low cost terminals to a central server so that they you could save money on PC hardware and give your staff access from home to their desktop. With a MS solution you would require a terminal server that, including the hardware, would cost in the $10,000 - $12,000 dollar range minimum. A similar solution using Ubuntu Linux and FreeNX would cost $2,500 - $3,500.

Whats the catch?

There is no real catch other than opensource software is different. The differences are sometimes completely invisible or cosmetic but can also occasionally be rather prohibitive. One of the benefits of opensource software is the flexibility. Flexibility comes at a price. There are literally thousands of packages available. Which one do you choose? This is where the an IT professional can help.

At Herbert Harrison and Associates we are pragmatic about opensource software. It offers great opportunities but it has to fit with your business and current systems. Contact us to find out how opensource can save you money and help your business.