Reducing cost is one of the first things that any business wants to do. Here are other factors why choosing open source makes all the sense.
Going the open source way has a lot of benefits. Go to the market and compare the price of Linux laptops with others and you will see what kind of money you see. Even in the software segment, open source software offer benefits ranging from better security to cost effectiveness.
That said, it doesn't mean that you should use open source for everything. There are certain areas where proprietary may suit better. But, open source will fit for the most part. Here are 10 reasons for why you should at least consider open source once.
Open source software always have better security features than proprietary software. The biggest reason for this is their self policing nature. The source code is open to all, so any wrongdoing is very easy to catch and will be caught by one or the other developer. Take the Android OS for example, even though it isn’t fully open source, recently glitches were discovered in its security features by Coverity and not Google.
Many would argue with this, but the mere fact that most open source software are coming directly from the community itself is a testament to the quality. While proprietary software is built by a team of developers, open source is literally being built by thousands.
Taking from the fact that it is open source, the source code is open to all, which means that the entire code is visible to everyone using it. You can edit it and do whatever to make the software suit your needs. Now, can you do that with proprietary?
Proprietary software comes with a vendor lock. Open source software has no such issues, which gives a company much more freedom. You have to choose a proprietary software, which suits most of your needs, you can tweak an open source software to suit all your needs.
Without taking names, proprietary software requires updates on both the hardware and software front. Open source software, on the other hand, is less resource intensive. Look at any Linux laptop if you don’t believe us.
If you need interoperability in your system, then open source is what you should go for. The open standards that they adhere to make them suit these needs pretty well.
If you are using proprietary software, you have to rely on your vendor to keep the software secure. On the other hand, with open source, you can check the source code anytime you want and then question the vendor if you see faults.
Open source software is either available for free or it is very cheap compared to proprietary counterparts. Companies using open source would tell you that they’re saving heaps of money just because of these software.
It is not just the software that comes for free, you can also get support from the community. This too is free and available at almost anytime. So, while your vendor is providing support as well, you have a whole world of people to ask any question that comes to your mind.
Most open source software come with a trial run allowed. So, you can always try the software before you buy it. And more often than not, the trial run will include the whole software, just for a limited time period. So, you known exactly what you’re buying too.
Courtesy: PCWorld.com