As incredible as it sounds, there are hundreds of businesses and foundations out there that actively develop and distribute software for no cost. The reason for them opening up their software depends on company to company, but the benefits to the customers is immense.
Back in the 1970’s, computer programmers and nerds would create software and syndicate it to others for nothing to try and improve it. Along came a man called Bill Gates who saw a money making opportunity in building software for computers and built Altair BASIC. Unfortunately for him, his product was also given away around and he ended up writing a angry letter pointing out why software should not be free (Google Bill Gates Open Letter).
Recently, the open source collective has been winning a significant foothold in the software market, mostly driven by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Excel, Photoshop and even Programming Languages.
There are free versions of just about everything, from e-commerce solutions to images. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now available on the World Wide Web. I am even writing 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 free around to power any kind of website. Web development companies such as Wordpress and Wikimedia Foundation release scripts free for companies to use. What makes it particularly attractive is that open source customization can be undertaken by a number of companies around the globe.
Deciding on open source software for your website provides a great base from which to begin, for example Wordpress is fantastic for virtually any sort of website, but with a bit of Wordpress customization you can have it meet your exact requirements for a fraction of the price of coding it from the beginning.
Before you purchase your next computer programme, always research to find out if there is an open source option on the market. Especially relevant during these hard times, open source scripts may be one way you or your business can drive down its costs.