T hese are full-featured open source software products, free as in beer and speech that I started to use recently. Vivek Gite picks his best open source software of 2013. Open Source Software in C# Open Source Aspect-Oriented Frameworks in C#. AspectSharp - Aspect# (pronunced as AspectSharp) is a free AOP ( Aspect Oriented Programming. Free, secure and fast downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory - SourceForge.net. Using Open Source in Business. by Frank Wiles. Abstract. In recent years Open Source software has become the new IT craze. However, is it right for your particular. Official site offers project information, images, and links. Frequently Asked Questions regarding Open Source Software (OSS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) This page is an educational resource for government employees and. General information on Free Software (Open Source) and its community. Using Open Source in Businessby Frank Wiles. In recent years Open Source software has become the new IT craze. However, is it right for your particular business? You would be. foolhardy if you did not take each new industry buzzword with a. SUV. Luckily Open Source software is not. IT craze, nor is it driven by any single. It is driven by tens of thousands of IT professionals. The following. paragraphs should give you enough of a crash course on the topic to form. What is Open Source Software? The biggest difference between Open Source and the software you are. Source code is what. Source code is much like a chef's recipe. RAM, and a pinch of cable modem. Bake at 4. 75° for 2. Voilá you have a word processor! Open Source Web Design is a platform for sharing standards-compliant free web design templates. We give web publishers a voice through good design. Free resources for law enforcement and police. Includes free software downloads, free police training, free crime analysis tools and other resources. It. isn't quite that simple, but you get the idea. In typical commercial software you are not allowed to see this recipe. It. is the company's intellectual property and is a closely guarded secret. Right. about now you are probably asking yourself, "But I'm not a programmer, nor do. I want to become one. Why do I care if I have access to the source code?". Surprisingly enough you and your business should care for several reasons. Here is short list of the major reasons it is an attractive choice for. Control — Using Open Source software lets you. Unlike commercial software you can be. Flexibility — It is licensed in. Reliability — It is developed in such a. Cost — Open source software can be obtained and. You only pay for the support you. Longevity — When a commercial software company. If a piece of software you use is. Open Source, you can simply contract. When a programmer or a group of programmers publishes software under. Open Source License. You. are free to modify the software to suit your needs, free to use. The only restriction is that if you utilize any of the above freedoms. If you modify or use a portion of a Open Source. In these restrictions lies the true. Open Source. This power is best illustrated by a few examples. Examples of the Open Source process at work. Example #1. Bobby Smith a young computer science major at the local university spends. Bobby publishes his pet project on the. Internet and licenses it under an Open Source license. If Bobby's software is. Internet are. helping improve this software. They do this by finding and fixing bugs. After a few months the software has been improved upon and now can catalog not. One of these programmers. Bobby that he setup the software to manage the inventory of his. Acme Widgets Incorporated hires Bobby to customize the software for use with. Because Bobby is intimately familiar with his own software. Acme Widgets Inc. Considering that the Widget business is very competitive. Acme elects to not publish these changes back to the software community. Because Acme Widgets Inc. A few years pass during which time a new Open Source project has captured the. Bobby's software. Bobby's original project is. Bobby himself gave up on college and moved to. As with most industries there were some advances in the widget manufacturing. Acme Widgets Inc. Bobby's work. Unfortunately, with Bobby and the other developers no longer around Acme is. This would cost. Acme thousands of dollars more than making a few simple changes to their. Luckily, Acme Widgets Incorporated built their business around Open Source. They do a few searches on the Internet and find a consulting. Acme's software. for a reasonable cost. This was only possible because of the Open Source. Without the source code the consulting company. Building. it from scratch would have cost considerably more money and impacted Acme's. Based on the past successes of their use of Open Source software, Acme. Widgets Inc. commissions a consulting firm to build a custom billing system. However unlike their. Acme realizes that billing their customers is not. Acme Widgets Incorporated releases their new billing system on the Internet. Open Source software. They even go so far as to inform all of their. Conventional thinking businesses. Acme Widgets isn't conventional and see that this is. By forming a community around their. Internet, even programmers on their competition's. While free bug fixes and enhancements are nice, Acme Widgets realizes the. Open Source software. They. did this to ensure that there would be a pool of talented programmers around. Acme with enhancements. If for some reason the original consulting. Acme could simply turn to members of the community of users the. Even if Acme's relationship with the consulting firm remained amicable, there. Acme needs a change in a time frame the consulting company. Here again having the source code and/or a community. Acme to take their request elsewhere to a company or. Keeping Control of your Business Through Open Source Software. Simply having the source code to your applications gives you, as a.It allows you to do business with the companies that provide you the best. You are not locked into keeping a relationship.Programmers- R- Us™, who are constantly late and over budget.How many times have you heard "That will be fixed in our next release.What if you need.Unless you want to spend vast sums of. By. using Open Source technology you are free to take your business elsewhere. Exactly as you would take your car to another. Reliability in Open Source Software. Not all Open Source software is created equal. Each piece of software. However, because the source code is available to be reviewed. Writing software is very similar to writing a novel or story. As many. writers will tell you a story is never truly finished, there is always a. It is the same with software. A new. programmer may join the community around a particular Open Source application. It would be the literary equivalent of having hundreds or thousands of. The True Costs of Software. When you purchase the typical piece of off the shelf commercial software. Many people falsely believe. These costs are factored in, but the margin. Others are also mistaken that they have "purchased" their software. Most. commercial end user license agreements ( aka EULAs ) specifically say that. You do not own anything. The vendor can revoke your right to use. You may be tempted to. EULAs right now, if so I strongly suggest you do so sitting. When you pay for commercial software, you are really paying for several. Direct Support — A phone number or website. Indirect Support — This comes in the form. Longevity — The future viability of the. You are essentially. Sense of Security — There is a number to. You are paying for this "support" whether or not you actually take. When was the last time you actually called your vendor. When was the last time. While having a number to call or someone to. Fortune 5. 00 vendor is going to shutter if you sue them or stop. Do you think they will even notice? Open Source software removes the charade of software sales. You are. allowed to acquire the software a little or no cost to you. You simply. pay for the support you need and only when you actually need it. And this. support can come from any qualified resource. You can hire in- house talent. Because the software's source code is. And I think we can all agree having. A steel ball bearing manufacturer would not feel safe only having one steel. Any little problem on the part of the supplier can significantly. Do you feel safe having only once source for the application(s) that run your entire business? Open Source software is the basis for most of the Internet's infrastructure. Many of the common Internet services, such as web servers and E- mail, have. Open Source software. Internet. run the Apache Open Source web server software. Internet E- mail. Sendmail, an Open Source E- mail server. I mention this. because some people falsely believe high quality software can only be. Internet. Just as you are not tied to a particular company to provide your. IT infrastructure. Please. do not hesitate to contact me directly if you have any further questions on. Open Source software, I can be reached at. Some examples of commonly used Open Source software. Some companies that are known to use Open Source software in their. Below are some suggested further reading on the topic of Open Source.
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