The power of open source is that it is developed by users. That sounds simple enough but if you think about it the things that bug users also bug developers forcing them to alleviate the itch. The result is software that does what it is supposed to do in the most efficient manner possible.
We use TenderSystem in-house and offer the procurement solution to insurance companies on a software as a service (SAAS) basis. If there is a bug or inefficiency it does not just inconvenience our clients, but costs us time and money, so you can bet your last dollar that we try to keep bugs to a minimum and fix them as and when they are discovered.
As the project sponsor this filters down into the open source code and our community members end up with tried and tested technology. TenderSystem benefits out of the open source process as well due to bug reports and additional functionality requests, that we could never have thought of on our own.
This win-win scenario is not present in proprietary software were developers do not feel the pain experienced by their clients. Developers are usually shielded from clients, so some critical problems, that might seem irrelevant to developers, are never prioritized and therefore never fixed. Additional features are also only added if there is a benefit to the development company, such as a barrier to entry for competitors or additional potential revenue, as there are initial development and future management costs involved.
It becomes even worse when a developer and their client’s best interests are diverged, as was the case with Internet Explorer. Microsoft saw, and most probably still see, the Internet as a treat to their monopoly on the desktop operating system market. Once the competition was eradicated, all development was shelved on the most prominent web browser and it took an open source project called Mozilla Firefox to put pressure on their dominance.
Open source users also benefit by supplying back bug fixes, feature contributions and improvements as it will be included, and tested, in future versions without having to be patched manually.
This results in more user friendly software produced through the open source process.
January 29, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
Christiaan,
a good idea, let’s see how popular it gets. I hope, very popular !
Igiboy
February 1, 2007 @ 10:23 am
There is a very good article that was written by David Garrett at NewsFactor (http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=133007TNKVKH&page=1) that evaluates open source and commercial software.
Stated benefits of commercial software in the article are:
1. Open source coders only work on the sexy functionality and ignore the laborious tasks.
2. No SLA agreements and support is difficult to obtain.
3. Bad or no documentation.
I think that these points are eliminated with the rise of commercial and sponsored open source projects.
Publishers such as O’Reily have also stepped up to the plate filling any any gaps that might exist in documentation. The thing to consider is that help screens are now built into the applications so that are updated automatically.
I also think that forums are one of the best support mechanisms. You can obtain the correct answer, normally from one of coders, much quicker that in a a commercial environment, were a problem has to be escalated as developers are guarded.
Please go and read the article and let me know what you think.