Benefits Of Open-source Technology

There are many advantages or benefits of Open-Source Technology:

Cost

Almost all the open Source technologies are available free of royalties and fees. Proponents of free software licenses tend to emphasize liberty over cost, although in practice the main open source projects are mostly free in both senses of the word.

If we consider the business benefits, then the cost effectiveness factor of open-source code software becomes secondary in front of the total cost of ownership (TCO) factor. Mostly, the solution with lowest TCO is usually the most desirable one, provided other features and facilities are at par.

Arguments in favor of low TCO for open source software include :-

* Probably zero purchase price

* Reduction in administrative overhead as there is no need to account for copies in use

* Due to its lower/nil upgrade fees and lower management costs, its claim for regular upgrades is reduced

* It also claims longer uptimes and reduced need for expensive systems administrators

* Vulnerability to viruses is also low, thus eliminating the need for virus checking, data loss and downtime considerably

* Similarly it reduces systems administration load due to lower claims of vulnerability to security breaches and hack attacks

* Also claimed ability to prolong life of older hardware while retaining performance

Stability

All the vendors who use software for conducting and managing their business have slightest desire to change or upgrade any product that is working well enough to suit their needs. They need a stable revenue stream to be able to keep their business going.

The vendors who offer closed-source software need to generate revenue for the company on regular basis. For this purpose they even nag their existing clients by forcing upgrades on their audience once they establish a virtual monopoly. This practice has been adopted by the software companies for a long time now.

Software vendors apply a number of tactics to persuade their customers to upgrade more or less willingly. Typical tactics include moving to allegedly new and improved file formats, which require the new and improved software to read them or to withdraw support and bug fixes for older versions after a short trial period. The problem for users of the software is that they rarely have much control over that process and are left isolated if they choose to remain with older versions that they consider to be acceptable. This has cost and control implications for the business.

Open Source Software, is not an ultimate solution in this technological world of ever-changing software, but the worst effects of vendor-push can be mitigated. The way that Open Source products tend to conform closely to standards efforts has an inertial effect, since standards change but slowly and interchange formats are often particularly stable.

As a result, incompatible file formats can be less of an issue. If they are standards-based then they typically aren't an issue at all, and if they are formats unique to the software product "" proprietary formats in a sense - then they cannot be undocumented since the source code that uses them is itself published. In practice the track record of Open Source projects is usually good; when incompatible formats are used it is common place for a Perl or similar converter program to be shipped with them which will upgrade data to the new format.

by: Tasha Thompson

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