OSS http://www.computersight.com/tags/OSS New posts about OSS Why Use Open-source Software? http://www.computersight.com/Software/Why-Use-Open-source-Software.373711 Open-source software goes beyong being free. If from a freeware application you can expect no costs, from an open-source one you can expect the same, plus the ability to tweak it in ways you never thought developers would allow you to.
And not only that.

For example, a few years ago I was using a Terminal application in Linux. This open-source software is called Yakuake and enables one to have a drop-down terminal window in the style of the one found in the Quake game series. With the push of a button I can access the console and make it disappear just as easy.

The only shortcoming of Yakuake at the time was that it didn't insert copied content from the clipboard by using Shift+Insert. I really needed that feature as my mouse's middle button/scroll wheel was broken and I always forgot to buy a new one. So I wrote the developer asking him if he could implement that certain feature. Believe it or not, in 12 hours there was a new version of Yakuake available for download with my much-needed copy/paste from keyboard option.
Now... would I have gotten the same quick response from, say, Adobe? If I needed a certain feature in Flash 10 for Linux, how much would it have took to even get a human-written reply?
 
No Bureaucracy
 


This is the power of open-source: since open-source applications make their source-code available, either you or someone else with coding abilities can take the files, implement a requested feature and make a binary available in no time. There's no reading EULAs, asking for permission from a software company or fear you might not be allowed to distribute it.
The best example of how open-source can make software better is Linux. In 1991, only a handful of people were using it. In 2000 it was still regarded as a server operating system. Now, Linux has a market share of 10% of the operating system market and is more widely spread on the desktop than on the server part.
People embraced Linux, tweaked it, modified it to fit the need of the user not the need of a company to spare cash and man power. There are hundreds of thousands of names, each belonging to a person who contributed code to either the Linux kernel or the Linux userland. 
Linux spread like wildfire in the last few years, from desktop systems to mobile and embedded devices, all because of the open-source license that allows you to freely download and modify it as it pleases you.
 
No Spyware
 
Another advantage open-source software gives the user is that... well... it is open. In other words, you can't hide malicious software in open code. No trojans, no adware, no spyware. Only clean code that you can count on and run in binary form without the fear of malevolent consequences. If by any chance an open-source program does display ads or hides spyware, you can just grab it from another source or compile it yourself, but this never happened to me in 10 years.
 
Building Bridges
 


And then there is portability. An open-source application can function on any operating system that has a compiler or interpreter installed for the code the application is written in. I can take a small Linux application and compile it in FreeBSD, modify it to run on Windows or port it to OS X, just because I want to use it on those platforms.

I don't have to account to no one while doing this, no company to beg for a port or emulating software do depend on. As long as all the needed files are open-source and my time and programming knowledge can afford it, I can create a port for it to run on a different operating system that it was previously designed.
 
Collaboration
 
The final and one of the most important reasons open-source software works so well, is because of communities. I don't have to write the application by myself. I can design it from the ground up and use it to fit my needs. If someone else wants a new feature and I don't have the time to implement it, there will always be a third party willing to help. Thirty people can write a complex application, each by working on a different segment of code. Five of them take care of the user interface, two of them debug the existing code, one does the icons and graphics, and so on. Not only will the software be ready to use more faster but it will also pass under 29 more pairs of eyes and different opinions, so the end result will be satisfactory to everyone.
 
Conclusion
 
So this is why I find the open-source model superior to the closed-source one, bot from the end user and programmer's point of view. It works, it is safe and in many ways faster. You don't have to pay for it and this can be a incredible plus when you embark in a business that uses computers. Cutting costs should be a priority when trying to make money with software, and open-source might just be the best answer.

]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:59:05 PST Philosophy and Advantages of Open Source Software http://www.computersight.com/Software/Philosophy-and-Advantages-of-Open-Source-Software.85437 Suppose you're a student reading a physics book which explains the Theory of Relativity. Now, you are able to read the book, use the notorious formula E=mc^2 to solve all of your exercises and, if you're a particularly brilliant student, why not, even start from there to come up with a new scientific discovery. In other words, scientific knowledge is free for everybody to use, modify and redistribute -- you don't have to pay a royalty to Einstein's nephew every time you solve a difficult physics exercise or daydream about time-space travel.

The world of technology, on the other hand, is largely dominated by patents, which makes it a "close" and competitive model where knowledge is rarely shared without money involved: companies strive to patent their latest innovations and boost their profits. Standard licenses and patents therefore prohibit any attempt at understanding the detailed mechanism through which a particular piece of technology works.

In this sense, the Open Source Software can be seen as a way to bring the worlds of science and technology closer together, particularly in the field of computer software, by granting everybody the rights to disassemble, rebuild, manipulate and personalize the software, making it possible to understand its inner mechanisms and adapt it to the user's needs.

Many Open Source licenses therefore state the source code of the program must be available for immediate download. This, unluckily, is sometimes considered to impact the fields in which the OS model can be applied.

For instance, using free software for network security purposes is generally discouraged, as the source code availability makes it easier for a malicious user to find a bug in the program and exploit it, whereas with proprietary software you would have to reverse-engineer a large part of the code to achieve the same result.

However, the advantages in terms of transparency and reusability coming from the Open Source model are unique and will often attract developers willing to review and submit frequent patches and updates on a voluntary basis to ensure the quality of the project remains high.

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