Dear Professor Bruce: I’m hearing a great deal about open source software. I am not a techie. Should my small business be investigating it? Why or why not? A: Phil Simon, author of “The Next Wave of Technologies” (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), says there are two types of software applications:
» Proprietary applications (i.e. Microsoft products such as Windows, Office)
» Free and open source (FOSS) applications such as Firefox, WordPress and OpenOffice.
FOSS alternatives to traditional (paid) software applications have been gaining acceptance for years. Note that I’m grouping free and OS software together under the category of FOSS. Technically, these are two separate groups of software.
Should your business be investigating FOSS applications? In a word, yes. Here are a few of the benefits:
» Increased reliability. A large group of volunteer developers often creates a more reliable application (one with fewer defects) than a small, paid group of developers does.
» Increased stability. A large group of volunteer developers often creates a more stable application (one less prone to crashing) than a small, paid group of developers does.
» Reduced cost. Obviously, small businesses can save a great deal of money on software licenses by using FOSS, although support for those applications may not be free. This is an important distinction.
» Increased flexibility and freedom. This can be broken into two dimensions: freedom from a single vendor and freedom to modify software.
Most FOSS alternatives to paid applications do similar things. For instance, OpenOffice is a productivity suite just like Microsoft Office. Firefox does many of the same things as Internet Explorer.
The bottom line is that free and open source software is here to stay. Regardless of your field, investigate alternatives before purchasing major and expensive alternatives. There’s still plenty of merit in buying proprietary applications. Just because you can get free software doesn’t mean that you should. Just understand that you have more options these days.
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