As unbelievable as it appears, there are hundreds of outfits and foundations out there that actively develop and syndicate software for free. The reason for them doing this depends on company to company, but the benefits to the customers is immense.
Way back in the 1970’s, computer programmers and nerds would create software and syndicate it to other hobbyists for nothing to try and make it better. Along came a man called Bill Gates who saw a money making opportunity in creating software for computers and designed Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his product was also distributed around and he ended up writing a long letter describing why software should not be free (try Googling Bill Gates Open Letter).
In the past few years, the open source community has been acquiring a big slice in the software market, probably caused by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Word, Dreamweaver and even Programming Languages.
There are open source versions of virtually everything, from office applications to images. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now free on the World Wide Web. I am actually typing this short 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 alternative to Windows or Mac OS X.
When it comes to websites, there is a plethora of open source software available to run any kind of site. Web development companies such as Wordpress and Wikimedia Foundation release scripts free for webmasters to use. What makes it extremely enticing is that open source customization can be completed by lots of companies around the globe.
Using open source software to power your site provides a great base from which to start, eg Wordpress is suitable for virtually any kind of site, but with a bit of Wordpress customization you can have it meet your exact requirements for a small percentage of the cost of developing it from fom the start.
Before you order your next script, always check to see if there is an open source option available. Especially during these hard times, open source products may be one way you or your company can drive down its costs.
