NEED FOR OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE!
The following are the factors that lead to the development of Open Source Software:- Diminishing the high monopoly value of the Proprietary Software
- Avoiding discrimination among persons like developers of the product and users of the product
- Enabling the user finding and fixing the bugs themselves
- Allowing customers to have control over the products they use and to redistribute the same with or without modifications.
1. Diminish the monopoly value:
The user doesn’t have one vendor to depend upon in OSS development approach. This is in contrary to the traditional approach used for developing Proprietary Software, which has a high monopoly value for its produc.
The process of developing OSS is done through rapid evolutionary delivery of source codes. The source code is accessed and adapted to fix defects and improve the product. With a sufficient base of co-developers all over the globe the pace is much faster than the traditional methodology of development.
The co-developers are connected by the internet. The developers can access, read and distribute the software. If the developers are spread across the globe then the development would happen all round the clock.
The OSS is subjected to regular peer reviews thus minimizing the defects and dramatically improving the quality of the code. There are several successful OSS products that are developed in this methodology of development, namely Linux, KDE, and Mozilla web browser.
2. No discrimination among Users and Developers:
Proprietary Software makes clear discrimination between the Developer of the system and the User of the system. Proprietary software is generally developed by a group of people belonging to a company and is marketed to its customers by the company for a price. Moreover, the software is available only in the compiled form, with out the source code.
By not providing the source code along with the product, the proprietary software makes a distinction between the time of design and the time of use of a product. Thus, the scope of the proprietary software at the time of use is limited to the decisions made at the time of design. This discrimination is overcome in OSS by providing the source code freely along with the binary form of the software.
3. Bug Fixing done by the User:
Proprietary software has many “dark corners” in which bugs and other quirks can hide. For e.g., “hanging the system due to malfunctioning of hardware or software” - was a bug in older versions of Windows OS. Such bugs can’t be rectified by the user in proprietary software due to unavailability of its source code.
The source code is crucial for understanding how a product works and fixing the bugs that may arise during its execution. Open Source Software makes the source code available to its customers, which is essential for finding and fixing security holes and other undesired behavior.
4. Gives control over the Product:
In large software companies, few employees have access to source code, and the employees who have access are rarely available directly to customers. When the developer of the product doesn’t provide their services for maintenance and modification of the software, the user can’t have any control over the software.
On the other hand, Open Source Software gives customers a much greater ability to customize software to fit their business needs. The users of the system can make modifications and extensions at any time in a system’s life cycle using the source code of the system. They can choose to maintain the software themselves either directly of by hiring a third party.
Advantages of OSS:
Open source software is protected by Public Licenses. These prevent commercial companies from taking control of open source software by adding a few modifications of their own, copyrighting those changes, and selling the software as their own product. The most popular Public License is the GNU Public License provided by the Free Software Foundation. This is the license under which Linux is distributed.
The GNU Public License retains copyrights, freely licensing the software with the requirement that the software and any modifications made to it are always freely available. Other public licenses have also been created to support the demands of different kinds of open source projects. For instance, the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) lets commercial applications use GNU licensed software libraries. Netscape made its Netscape Communicator software available under a Netscape Public License (NPL), which covers modifications made directly to the Netscape source code.
Linux is currently copyrighted under a GNU Public License provided by the Free Software Foundation, and is often referred to as GNU software. GNU software is distributed free, provided it is freely distributed to others. GNU software has proven both reliable and effective. Many of the popular Linux utilities, such as C compilers, and editors, are all GNU software applications.
Under the terms of the GNU General Public License, the original author retains the copyright, although anyone can modify the software and redistribute it, provided the source code is included. Also, no restrictions exist on selling the software or giving it away free. One distributor could charge for the software, while another one could provide it free of charge.
Major software companies are also developing Linux versions of their most popular applications. A Linux version of Sun’s Java Development Kit (JDK) is also available through ftp://ftp.blackdown.org/. Corel has developed a Linux version of WordPerfect, while Oracle provides a Linux version of its Oracle database.
The main advantages of Open Source Software lies in its development process, which include the following:
- Low development cost
- High development speed and
- Good software quality that is proven world wide.
- User doesn’t have to depend on one vendor.
The other key advantages are:
Stability: As every modification is equally open (not necessarily free) OSS is more stable than commercially distributed software.
Adaptability: It is easy to adapt the OSS to your requirements and OSS has a high degree of interpretability.
Quality: More new features, less bugs, and peer review are significant to the quality of a product. Currently this is the best in OSS.
Performance: OSS has proven to be a tough competitor to other commercial software on the aspect of performance.
Scalability: OSS has been much better than commercial products in terms of user scalability, i.e., increasing number of users per copy. It is also scalable on multiple hardware / processor.
Zero-price tag: The near zero cost of OSS saves lots of money for the organization in terms of license free. Moreover, mature OSS provides very high reliability.
Licensing for OSS:
Open source software is protected by Public Licenses. These prevent commercial companies from taking control of open source software by adding a few modifications of their own, copyrighting those changes, and selling the software as their own product. The most popular Public License is the GNU Public License provided by the Free Software Foundation. This is the license under which Linux is distributed.
The GNU Public License retains copyrights, freely licensing the software with the requirement that the software and any modifications made to it are always freely available. Other public licenses have also been created to support the demands of different kinds of open source projects. For instance, the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) lets commercial applications use GNU licensed software libraries. Netscape made its Netscape Communicator software available under a Netscape Public License (NPL), which covers modifications made directly to the Netscape source code.
Linux is currently copyrighted under a GNU Public License provided by the Free Software Foundation, and is often referred to as GNU software. GNU software is distributed free, provided it is freely distributed to others. GNU software has proven both reliable and effective. Many of the popular Linux utilities, such as C compilers, and editors, are all GNU software applications.
Under the terms of the GNU General Public License, the original author retains the copyright, although anyone can modify the software and redistribute it, provided the source code is included. Also, no restrictions exist on selling the software or giving it away free. One distributor could charge for the software, while another one could provide it free of charge.
Major software companies are also developing Linux versions of their most popular applications. A Linux version of Sun’s Java Development Kit (JDK) is also available through ftp://ftp.blackdown.org/. Corel has developed a Linux version of WordPerfect, while Oracle provides a Linux version of its Oracle database.
