What is Open Source Software?Open Source Software is free software. Yes, there is no trial period, no licenses to be paid, it’s totally free. You can just go and download it straight from the web. If you look hard enough, you will find Open Source Software you need. Something that does the same as the expensive software you have to buy from any computer shop. And it will suit your pocket, because it’s free. Now you would think by yourself, nothing in this world is for free! Well, in some way you might be correct. But we will get into that a bit later. For now, just remember, Open Source Software is free.
Why is Open Source Software free?
Think of it as software for the people, by the people. Corporations that write software, which they sell to us the end users, do not want everybody to know how the software works. If that happens, anybody can duplicate their software and they will lose their advantage and possible sales. Not good for the bean counters and share holders.
When I talk about how the software works, I do not mean you have to click on File and then save to save your file. I mean the commands that drive that process of saving the file. All those hundreds of commands the software sends to the computer hardware that have the net result of a digital file stored somewhere on your hard drive. Those commands the normal users never know or care about. I do not really care how a car’s engine works, all I need to know is when I step on the throttle, the car picks up speed. And that is all that I want to know.
Generally in licensed software, all those commands that make up a program, is normally kept a secret. Open Source Software is where that commands is readily available. What I mean with readily available is that you can download it from the Internet, and if you are a programmer and understand these types of things, you can read it as a normal person would read a book and understand how all fit together. The source code of a program is just a file with a bunch of commands that a human can read and understand. An end user can’t do anything with it. First, they do not understand the code and second, it’s not a program.
Why would they make Open Source Software available to everyone?
We all know the software that most of us use on our home pc and all the little problems associated with it. Software sometimes do things that it was not designed to do. The IT guys call it bugs. The big companies generally work on their bugs and build service packs to solve these little mishaps. Or they bring out a new version of the software with a promise of a lot less of these bugs. Well, the problem is that no software is without bugs. Not even Open Source Software. They all strive for zero defects. With OSS (Open Source Software) all users that download the software and use it, is seen as developers.
Now you would think they could not possibly mean me, as some of us think of developing as taking your old camera film to the shop to make them into little pictures. But yes, they do include you as well. When you download the software and use it on your own pc, you are one of the thousands of testers of the software. You may not know how to fix the software, but you know when something is not right and you can report it to the people that wrote it and they can fix it. Thus you are part of the development of the software.
There are also more smart people out there that you can ever imagine. Someone might write some piece of OSS and along come a bright spark, because the code is available, look at the code and maybe see something wrong and assist the developer to fix it.
Thus OSS is developed and tested by the Internet community and not just some software team in one building with the same ideas somewhere. Now you can start to see the benefits of developing software in this manner. The software will be more completely tested as there are thousands of people using and testing it for free out there. The software will develop more quickly, because of the amount of input and request from the Internet community.
So what is the catch? Someone must be making money off it.
The software is for free, but someone needs to offer you a helping hand when something goes wrong. Thus people will charge you for supporting the software. But the same community that help testing and writing the software generally support the software as well. So you will get help out there, but without paying for support with a set SLA, it could take a while.
If you think of something that you would like have your software do for you, the chances is that someone have already wrote something that will assist you. Problem is, that it might not do exactly what you would like, but then you have the option of paying something to change the software to your needs as it’s just a download away.
Another way where people make money of OSS is where they put out a free version of the software for people to use, but they would write this super duper version with lots more funky features that they would sell at a premium.
Bottom line?
We support OSS. We believe in free speech and opportunities for everybody. You will have to pay someone to assist you with your paid software; you might as well save that money on the software and pay for the support on OSS. Spread the wealth to all people and not just a select few corporations.
