Why Is Open Source Software Important For Business? – Coast Digital (blog)

Whether or not you rely on open source software in your daily business activities at the moment, its crucial youre aware of it and understand how it can help your business grow.

Open source software is, to put it simply, software made by the public and available for free.

There are so many projects out there being developed right now by volunteers all over the world and its changing the fundamental way businesses operate. Read on to find out more about what this means for your business.

Any software that is made open source by its creators is free for you to use for whatever youd like. This means that if something open source is the perfect tool for you, youll enjoy lower costs than a premium alternative and no contracts or subscription plans holding you hostage to a closed eco-system.

Typically, open source software is licensed under either what is known as the GPL or MIT licenses which gives you the freedom to do what you like without posing any restrictions and terms on you for how and when you use it.

In 2017, security is a big deal and theres no denying that almost anything is prone to hacking attempts.

Open source software can still be affected, but due to the nature of how its made, it means that anyone from the public can contribute to building it. Not only does this mean that you can build feature rich applications, it means you get the security ideas from talented developers from all over the world.

The software is open for everyone to inspect and pull apart which means nothing can hide within the code to give you a nasty surprise later on.

The common adage is if you want something done right, do it yourself. Thankfully, that feature you wanted that doesnt usually exist in the core product may well be available for free for you to add into the system if you so wish.

The idea that something is so easily customisable means that you can reshape the software into anything you want to use it for. It also means that you are able to make your own added extras and give back to the community of the project.

Of course, theres plenty of popular software tools out there that help you get your job done quickly and effectively. However, if youre not using a well-known tool, you may make it harder for you and your organisation to pick things up and get the training to help them get up to speed.

The amount of paid software tools out in the wild is plentiful, and some are popular and well-documented but dont let that fool you. Not all paid for products have helpful resources and support on hand if things go wrong.

Closed off, premium software can sometimes have poor and undocumented tools and features that are hard to understand. With a community of contributors on an open source project, you need not worry. Not everyone is a developer. Not everyone is a server administrator. Some people who want to contribute may be copywriters or even linguists.

Its great having a super piece of software with all the bells and whistles, but not so great if there isnt a help guide to get going or no one to translate it into a common language you might speak.

This touches on some previous points, but its very important to remember that with an open community of volunteers that build and maintain a piece of software can often come a stamp of guarantee that it adheres to current standards. Your data is kept safe and secure, which means you dont have to worry about common hacking attacks. Its audited and put through its paces to make sure its user friendly and works for people with disabilities and different systems.

Theres too many out there to list them all, but to name just a few. There is the ever so popular content management system that is used by millions of people all over the world, every single day; WordPress. The desktop operating system Linux, which is what the popular MacOS is based on! WebKit, built by Apple that is the engine that powers your web browsers like Googles Chrome and Apples Safari. phpBB, one of the most well known communication tools available for forum based communities.

As mentioned earlier, you dont need to be a development ninja to contribute. Regardless of what your day to day job is, you can help in some way and the best way to do that is to just ask and find out what needs doing.

If you want to volunteer your time to learn something new, help out a stranger with a problem or something completely different to fill your Saturday evenings. Jump right in.

As fantastic as open source software is, there are a couple of issues you may find with it. Firstly, open source means its free for people to use. That means you dont get an income from it, but you can sell extras and perks if you want to. For the most part, youll be donating time and effort into something for free.

Secondly, it will take time to manage the project and steer it into the direction it needs to go. With a small team sat next to each other, its easy to get something finished without too much effort. Coordinating people from all over the world in different time zones speaking different languages with varying degrees of experience, youre not going to be able to always get things done just by clicking your fingers.

Lastly, it relies on the will of you and others to keep pushing with the project and keep it alive. A premium product is able to continue due to funding but working on something without an incentive, you might find that the project has stagnated and is no longer worthy of any progress.

Now you know the challenges alongside the positives. If it all sounds good to you, then what are you waiting for? Find a project and get involved.

What are your favourite pieces of open source software? Are you currently involved in an open source project? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Why Is Open Source Software Important For Business? - Coast Digital (blog)