Documente Academic
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COLLEGE- I.I.P.M
BATCH-A4
OPEN SOURCE
INTRODUCTION :-
The IT industry is going through major changes. New concepts in
technology, such as Web services and grid computing, are opening the door
to tremendous opportunities for taking e-business to the next level of
profitability. The potential of these technologies to transform business is
truly remarkable, and open standards and open source software will play
increasingly critical roles in this new world.
The roles of standards and open source software do overlap in that many
companies who are using open source in part as a means of implementing
open standards, the cores of their respective value propositions are distinct.
MEANING:-
Open source software? software whose source code is published and made
available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the
source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source code evolves
through community cooperation. These communities are composed of
individual programmers as well as very large companies. Some examples of
open source initiatives are Linux, Eclipse, Apache, Mozilla, and various
projects hosted on SourceForge.
NOTE :-{The open source label does not imply no cost. Developers can
and do charge for open source software. Open source actually refers to the
availability of the source code for software.}
The BSD license is a very simple and broad license. The license permits
unlimited use of the software, as well as distribution in source code and
object code form. The software can be adapted freely and be incorporated in
other programs without any restrictions.
The only obligations are that the copyright notice and a warranty disclaimer
must be reproduced in the source code or in the documentation of the work.
The name of the author and of any contributor may not be used to endorse or
promote products derived from such software without specific prior written
permission.
The GNU General Public License (GPL) is the most famous open source
license. Using, copying and distributing software under the GPL is always
permitted. Modifying the software, or even developing an application using
for example a library under the GPL is no problem.
The Library General Public License (LGPL) is a variant of the GPL. As the
name indicates, it is mainly intended for libraries (such as DLLs), programs
with functionality that can be used by other programs. The LGPL permits
linking the library with such another program without imposing any
obligations on that other program. Modifications to the library itself can only
be distributed under the terms of the LGPL, which in this respect are equal
to the terms of the GPL. That is, such modifications can only be distributed
in source code form and without imposing any further restrictions on the
recipients of these modifications.
According to the Mozilla Public License (MPL) the author of a work grants
everyone a worldwide royalty-free license to use and distribute his work
under any patent and copyrights he holds. Anyone who distributes a
modification or other contribution to the work must grant the same
permission for his contribution and for the combination of the original work
and his modification.
{Cost}
Pros:
Source codes are like keys to programmers. By exposing the source codes,
programmers can improve, modify and tweak any part of the freely software.
This could reduce development time that translates into lower costs. As OSS
is distributed, programmers are also able to use this software for their
benefits.
From this aspect, OSS is free to the extent of having the source codes.
Cons:
Although the source codes are provided, there are hidden costs that do not
come with the software. Programmers will have to be familiar with
integrating open source with other proprietary software. Middleware might
be needed in many instances. This gives additional cost. Novice users are
also unfamiliar with the bugs and fixes that often occur in OSS. They also
need to pay for customer support service or even documentation and
manuals.
{Functionalities}
Pros:
The functionalities of OSS are beginning to rival that to commercial
software. This is because the global community of programmers and
users have a hand in improving the software. In some cases, the OSS
offers more functionality.
Cons:
Being free comes with hidden cost. In similar fashion, functionalities
bring about bugs and usability issues. Users will find the software patches a
hassle in OSS. Those who are familiar with commercial software like
Microsoft may not get used to the user interface of Open Office. This
involves re-learning new software and incurring switching cost.
{Sustainability}
Pros:
One of the greatest things in OSS is the continuous contribution and
effort from programmers. Bear in mind that these programmers are
improving the software at their own time and cost. They are not being paid
in anyway. It is their passion that drives the growth of the software like
parents watching their children. Thus, the development of software will
be moving at an amazing pace with a large community as compared
to commercial software.
Cons:
On the other hand, OSS faces major issues in backward compatibility,
project management and customer support. Can OSS sustain and compete
against commercial software?
As most OSS grows from contributions from online
community, resources are limited. There is also a need to manage the long-
term vision of the software. Customers would demand support and help in
using OSS.
OSS is a great threat to commercial software. Commercial software
companies never expect that source codes would be freely distributed.
Although OSS is "free", users expect more than just the source codes.
Documentations, manuals and customer support could incur the additional
cost. Switching cost will also come in the form of training as most users are
used to the functionalities of commercial software. Hence, new way has
been introduced in the form of commercial open source to address the
cons from OSS. In this way, consumers could have the best of both worlds.
{Developers}
Pros:
Developers don't have to create from scratch they can use the massive
open source library of software to get started.
Developers can create a reputation and gain experience though working on
open source projects.
Open source projects can provide good feedback to developers on the
quality of their code.
Developers can collaborate without worrying about things like ownership
and intellectual property.
Cons:
Developers lose control of their software.
Others can fork your code and create a competing product.
Because your code is open every flaw is visible to the entire world.
{Users}
Pros
Many open source projects are free.
Open source software will generally have some sort of community that can
provide support and response.
Open source projects are more responsive to individuals then some
closed source projects.
Open source software is often more secure and less buggy then the closed
source versions.
If you are a user and a developer you can implement features that you need
and share them with others.
Cons
Open source software evolves to answer developers needs not end users.
Many open source projects do not focus on user interface.
Open source software often does not have good documentation.
It is not always possible to buy support for open source software.
Hardware support on open source software can sometimes lag closed source
as hardware vendors are reluctant to make their software available.
For many the pros outweigh the cons of open source. Open source software
runs many of the pieces of hardware that make the web possible. Developers
should consider becoming involved in an open source project to improve
their skills
and gain experience. Users should try a few of the more popular projects
like
Firefox or Open Office.
3. Whatever the price of the software you are considering integrating into
your IT infrastructure, you need to know if it will exchange information with
full fidelity with your other installed software or that which you are using as
a service, perhaps in the cloud. That is, does the open source software fully
and correctly implement the open standards and protocols to allow it to drop
into your infrastructure? Again, and for the last time here, you should ask
this of any software, not just open source software.
4. It is not sufficient to say “I have the code for the open source software, I
can see how it does things, so I don’t care if it implements open standards
for interoperability.” Code changes while standards define interfaces that are
meant to be stable, at least for a while. By all means, ensure that the open
source software implements open standards.
8. Depending on your organization and its rules about what software can be
used, you may need to check off that the open source software is certified for
9. Once that open source software is sitting in your infrastructure, how are
you going to manage it? Does the systems management software you are
using now support the open source code? Does the open source software
need to be extended in order to support management standards? Does the
systems management software itself need to be augmented?
10. If you are using no open source code strategically in your organization
but you think you should consider using it, start with Linux. There are many
highly motivated people, organizations, and companies that can help you
integrate Linux into your IT world. Furthermore, it is mature technology
with several first class distributions.
EXAMPLE OF A COMPANY WHO SWITCHED TO OPEN
SOURCE:- [IBM]
IBM’s position on patents may upset open source advocates, but let it not be
said IBM doesn’t like open source.
The whole company is switching to Firefox.
In a blog post set for release today Bob Sutor, the company’s vice president
for open source and Linux (right), said out loud what many IBM’ers have
been noting for some time.
The company is moving to Firefox as its default browser.
Why all the Firefox love?
* Firefox is stunningly standards compliant, and interoperability via open
standards is key to IBM’s strategy.
* Firefox is open source and its development schedule is managed by a
development community not beholden to one commercial entity.
* Firefox is secure and an international community of experts continues to
Conclusion
Using open source software offers various advantages, such as the ability to
reduce costs and development time, or to avoid being dependent on a single
vendor. It is therefore to be expected that more and more companies and
institutions will start using open source software. There are however some
risks associated with doing so. Being forced to release some or all of the
software of a commercial product as open source software may greatly
reduce its value.