Open Source is one of several terms given to software that is created
in a community effort on the Internet. The core of Mac OS X, which
Apple calls Darwin, is an Open Source project. In addition, many
elements of Mac OS X utilize third party Open Source solutions such as
the ability to talk to Windows computers by using the Samba project and
the ability to serve websites from Mac OS X using the Apache web server
project.
Sollos believes Open Source offers a fantastic opportunity to improve your productivity, heighten integration of your business data, at the same time you are reducing costs.
How Open Source Works
Open Source software is available under a variety of licenses, but most have similar elements. An Open Source project is started and announced usually at a major Open Source location such as Sourceforge. At this location the plan for the project is laid out for everyone to see and a request is usually offered for help and input from the general audience. A discussion forum is usually available to talk about the software function, problems, and feature requests. When the software is ready for a release, it is posted on the site and is made available in a variety of forms for use on different types of computers. When new versions are release, the olds ones remain online to show how the software has developed. This is why it is called Open Source, as anyone can take part in development and at any time you can see how the program is written as well as how it was written in the past.
There are many benefits to this. Software tends to be less buggy as more eyes have been searching for bugs. Since anyone can take part in the programming, the software development can go faster than commercial software development.
One of the greatest benefits of Open Source software can come in the matter of cost. Much Open Source software is offered completely free. The license prevents anyone from charging for the software. However, this is not always the case. Many projects do charge, though there prices tend to be far less than for equivalent commercial products. Still other projects have a dual license arrangement. A free version is available as well as a commercial version that includes technical support and perhaps additional features.
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