Cost-Conscious Companies Turn to Open-Source & Free Software
12/1/08
I've been pushing open source and free software alternatives to individuals and businesses for a long time, but it appears now with this economic slump we are experiencing that the open source world is really taking off with businesses around the globe.
'Open Source' means that the source code for the software is obtainable to edit and re-compile into a working program yourself, (note: it is not necessary to do this) not all open source software is free.. and not all free software is open source. But software that is both open source and free is a good combination.
Open source software encompasses everything from your computer's bios firmware to the operating system and programs running on it, to web applications and servers driving the internet.
Companies are switching from proprietary and expensive software like Windowstm and Officetm to open source and free alternatives like Linux and OpenOffice to save on overhead operating costs, and allow in-house software customization.
I'm glad to see this is finally catching on, as many businesses can save thousands to millions of dollars in operating costs, and this is what we need.
Open source and free software seems like a horrible thing to many software developer's that make a living off of selling software, and open source has in fact hurt this industry on one wing, but turned the industry around and gave it a different wing to profit from, this new wing is located in the area of support and customization of software and systems.
Consumers who have experienced 'problems' with closed and proprietary software are usually the first to jump on the open source band wagons and happy they did. The problems many have faced with closed software free or commercial, have been partially related to spyware, adware and various malware and back doors, embedded in the closed software packages. Even banks and large retail stores have experienced these problems.
After the tech bubble burst, E*Trade's technology chief, Lee Thompson, needed to find a way to do more with less. In 2001 and 2002, the online stock trading company shrank its tech budget by one-third. "We had to go through and figure out every penny that we were spending…and make alternatives to reduce those costs," says Thompson, vice-president and chief technologist of E*Trade (ETFC). So he began using software that can be downloaded at no cost via the Internet. By the end of 2002, he was saving $13 million a year thanks to use of these freely available applications known as open-source software, and the fact that he could run that software on less expensive hardware .
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