Freedom Of Usage

A

discussion on such an issue needs a clear understanding of open source. It

involves going back to its origin.

The start of open

source can be traced to Richard Stallman's founding the Free Software

Foundation and launching the GNU project with the aim of producing an operating

system which would be totally compatible with other proprietary UNIX systems

available in the market at that point of time. At the start of this movement,

Stallman laid down the rules of the game and made it clear that the movement was

about freedom. He also laid down the rules for licensing of the software-which

was that everyone has the right to run the software, copy it, modify it and

distribute modified versions of it as long as they did not place any

restrictions of their own. In simple words, open source software need not be

available for free in the money sense. It should made be available for

improvements and enhancements, as people need it.

Tejinderpal Singh Miglani  CTO, Indiabulls Group

With the above

background, in my opinion, the single most important benefit that open source

presents to its users is independence from a particular vendor for support,

upgrades and functionality. Open source with a worldwide resource pool of

volunteers ensures independence from such vagaries. The development and upgrade

path of an open source software platform is largely determined by the

requirements expressed by the large pool of users and developers, unlike

proprietary software where it is determined totally by the profit motive and

management of the vendor in question.

Total cost of ownership

in the case of proprietary and open source can never be compared. This is

because of the different support models. One time licensing cost certainly turns

out to be lower for most open source products. However, TCO has to include the

servicing of the product going forward which can be pretty significant. The

service requirements of the person or organization at hand are also to be taken

into consideration. It comes in various forms ranging from knowledge groups on

the Internet to fee based service providers (eg the various flavors of Linux).

Organizations, which have large installed bases of product, stand to gain even

more because they can save on the huge per unit costing that accompanies

proprietary software. Open source on the other hand, starts becoming cheaper as

the installed base increases.

Today most open source

technologies do have significant following among development and technology

circles and skilled personnel are easy to come by for support. With source code

being shared, volunteers ensure it turns out to be bug free and free of security

concerns unlike a team of developers working towards a deadline for product

launch. In fact, open source is more of a software development methodology

rather than a software distribution mechanism. Also, open source products and

platforms provide a very viable and efficient alternative to proprietary

software.

As told to Shipra Arora





shipraa@cybermedia.co.in 



The views expressed in this article are the individual views of the writer only
and do not in any way represent the views of any organization that the writer

might be involved with.