Free Software or Open Source Software: Let's Cut To the Chase http://bestcomputerclass.blogspot.com/2013/01/blogger.

html It's definitely not just the name Free Software and Open source software feature different licensing requirements, which are promoted by two separate groups. Both are fixated on the availability of source code to the user along with the user's right to study, alter and free ly redistribute the code to others. The thing to note about the GNU General Publ ic License of free software is that the developer can actually charge the user f or the "free software". This begs the question what exactly is free about this t ype of software. The freedom is that the user has access the source code along w ith the right to study, modify, alter and distribute the code to others (Free sp eech, not free beer as they say). An alternative to the General Public License i s the BSD license, which allows distribution of the source code only and only if a few specific conditions are fulfilled. The free software ideology is promoted by the Free Software Foundation. Open source software is not governed by either of these licenses described earli er and is promoted by the Open Source Initiative (OPI), a relatively organizatio n. In this case, the ready to run software is often provided to the user along w ith the source code. There is no specific license governing such open source sof tware hence we have two additional types of software related to open source - fr eeware and shareware. Shareware is payable though the user gets a period of free trial. However, access to the source code is not provided as part of the typica l shareware license. Freeware users are free to download and use the software bu t access to source code is not provided. A majority of the true blue open source application developers however provide complete access to their source code and allow users to actively participate in improving the currently available applic ation. Though these ideological differences between the two types are often a source of contention between the OPI and the Free Software Foundation, they are definitel y interested in ensuring greater openness in the field of software development. Both these movements consider proprietary software as they nexus of evil because it curtails the freedom of users by severely restricting access to the source c ode. Even if these two different ideologies take different routes, their goal ar e remarkably similar- greater benefits and freedom of choice to the user along w ith superior user involvement. From the end user's perspective, it hardly matter s to the average user as long as the final application performs according to the users' expectations, while providing an adequate if not an exceptional user exp erience. This has led many software development companies and users to use the t erms free software and open source software interchangeably. How Does it Affect Organizations? In most cases open source software tend to outperform free software in terms of stability and security as a result of greater collaboration between users to imp rove the available application. Thus using open source software is often preferr ed by organizations operating within a limited budget such as SMEs. In some case s, larger corporations have opted to use open source resources too - sometimes t o draw greater attention from additional user groups and sometimes to develop co mpetence in developing its own application based on a specific open source platf orm. A case in point being the use of PHP in website designing by leading organi zations all over the world. For security reasons, individuals/enterprises wanting to utilize the benefits of an open source platform, recommend the route of custom application development. This offers the best of both worlds by allowing the installation of additional

security features into the open source solution. Android and Java mobile apps ar e the best examples of how such customized solutions may be created and deployed in companies. The main problem with using proprietary software is the cost fact or, however, in some cases it might be unavoidable such as with MS-Office. The c urrent financial crisis has led to a severe cash crunch in most companies leadin g to implementation of various cost reductions. As a result of such cost reducti ons, the market for open-source and free software had expanded significantly dur ing the 2008 to 2012 period. Whether this growth is sustainable or not in a post -recovery market is what remains to be seen. The Author Abhishek is currently working with eXtendCode Software Systems India, an Outsource Software Development Company, which provides software solutions su ch as Web Application Development, Open Source Application Development, business intelligence solutions, Quality Assurance Services and Mobile Application Devel opment etc. For more information Visit: http://www.extendcode.com/ http://bestcomputerclass.blogspot.com/2013/01/blogger.html