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> open source > advantages
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| The
Advantage of Open Source Software
- Low Cost and Robust |
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Why open
source?
Why Open Source? Why not?
Open source offers a radically
different and exponentially
better software development
model. Companies can improve
their products greatly and significantly
increase their market share.
Overall, open source is good
for everyone.
Problems
with Closed Source
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| Closed
source software has
several fundamental
flaws. The nature of
closed source is such
that the internals of
the program is intentionally
hidden from the user.
This software hoarding
hurts the user by forcing
them to be at the mercy
of the vendor and disallowing
them from modifying
the program to suit
their own needs. This
monopolistic paradigm
is defeated with open
source, where anybody
can use or change the
software for their own
needs. |
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"If
builders
built
houses
the
way
programmers
built
programs,
the
first
woodpecker
to
come
along
would
destroy
civilization."
--
Gerald
Weinberg
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By not releasing the source
code, a company can hide security
holes and fundamental flaws
from the users. The software
vendor is completely in control
of the product. Gerld Weinberg's
above quote points out the fact
that most commercial software
is poorly engineered and not
subject to peer review. With
open source, more people see
the code and find and stop problems
before they hurt anything.
Development
Advantages
With many open source projects,
a virtual community of developers
grows around the software. The
company then incurs lower overhead
because of unpaid, outsourced
work and is closer to customers
who use the product. Many of
the programmers are actual users
of the product, so they have
a vested interest in making
the product the best it can
be. In this situation, everybody
contributes to produce a higher
quality product than could have
been produced independently.
A much broader market is developed,
since not only rich companies,
but also students, small businesses,
and developing nations can afford
the free software.
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Because
of the distributed nature
of the Internet, coordination
and modularity of software
was a requirement. Also,
the more people you
have looking at a piece
of code, the more likely
one of them is to find
a bug before it gets
to be a major problem.
The fundamental positive
externality is simply
better code and better
programs. This system
is baffling to traditional
free market economists,
but it is actually works
very well. |
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"Given
enough
eyeballs,
all
bugs
are
shallow,"
--
Linus's
Law
of
Software
Engineering
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