As incredible as it appears, there are businesses and foundations out there that actively develop and distribute software for no cost. The reason for them doing this is varied, but the advantages to the users is immense.
A long time back in the 1970’s, computer hobbyists and nerds would programme software and syndicate it to other geeks for nothing to try and make it better. That was until a man called Bill Gates who saw a money making opportunity in programming software for computers and built Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his product was also given away around and he ended up writing a pointed letter pointing out why software should not be free (Google Bill Gates Open Letter).
In recent years, the open source community has been acquiring a significant foothold in the software market, probably driven by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Word, Photoshop and even Programming Languages.
There are open source versions of virtually everything, from blogging platforms to email clients. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now available on the Internet. I am actually typing this informative article on a piece of open source software called Open Office, a free substitute to MS Word, and it’s powered by Ubuntu, a free substitute to Windows or Mac OS X.
When it comes to the Internet, there is a whole load of open source software available to run any kind of website. Web development companies such as Wordpress and Wikimedia Foundation release products free for webmasters to use. What makes it incredibly attractive is that open source customization can be done by a huge number of companies around the Earth.
Using open source software to run your site provides a low cost base from which to start, eg Wordpress is perfect for virtually any sort of website, but with a bit of Wordpress customization you can have it meet your exact requirements for a small percentage of the price of coding it from fom the start.
Before you order your next software, always look to find out if there is an open source option available. Especially relevant during these hard times, open source products may be one way you or your company can lower its costs.
