What is Free Open-Source Software ?
When you purchase a software package from a software manufacturer, you are not actually buying the product. What you are buying is the legal right to use the software, as long as you use the software in accordance to the legal agreement.
This legal agreement is called the software license. Every computer and in most cases every user of this software must have a separate license. A recent trend which a lot of software manufacturer's are adopting is the subscription license. This means license's need to be purchased annually for you to have the continued legal right to use that software. This can generate a lot assured revenue for the software house.
The license for your software will state that you can not distribute copies of the software, you most not reverse engineer to see how the software was created and you do not have access to the source code or blueprints of the software. This means you can not make alternations to the software. This is referred to as closed source or proprietary software.
Open Source is radically different. A legal agreement does still exist, however it states that you can distribute copies, all licenses are free of charge and you do have access to the source-code or blueprints. If you do make changes, you have to make those changes available to other parties, under the same terms.
This means compared to closed-source software, open-source software can be deployed with far less cost. This concept can be difficult for some people to understand. They understand the reasons why closed-source products exist. Companies make money by selling licenses every year. How do companies make money from giving software away ?
With open-source software, companies make money by selling support, installation, design and modifications. You could say that with open-source you are buying a solution instead of a product.
What services can Open Source Software perform in my business?
"According to the IDC report for OSDL, the overall Linux marketplace
revenues for
server and PC hardware and packaged software on Linux is expected to reach
$35.7 billion
by 2008, representing an annual growth of 26%."
http://old.linux-foundation.org/docs/linux_market_overview.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf
Although the actual software may be free, supporting and managing the software is not free. It will either cost you your time, or you can pay someone to do it for you. However the overall affect is that you can save a large amount of money by selecting open source software.
Open-source software is not a new concept. In fact , open-source is one of the main reasons why the Internet exists. Even today, large portions of the infrastructure which the Internet relies on, is based on open-source software.
Thousands of Open Source software products exist (with varying quality) that can be enablers for your business.
Here is a list of some the most prevalent products:
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available in two variants for servers. A base Red Hat Enterprise Linux server is designed for small deployments while Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform is designed for mainstream customers and provides the most cost-effective, flexible, and scalable environment. |
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The Platform for the Open Enterprise. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 is the only enterprise-grade Linux* platform offering a complete solution for your mission-critical needs—from the desktop to the data center. When security, cost and reliability matter, companies choose SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell. |
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Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for
laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school
or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from
word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming
tools.
Ubuntu is and always will be completely free software. You don't incur any costly licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing. |
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The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain
an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX
and Windows NT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure, efficient
and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current
HTTP standards.
Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996 |
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Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations |
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The MySQL® database has become the world's most popular open source database because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use. It's used in more than 10 million installations ranging from large corporations to specialized embedded applications on every continent in the world. (Yes, even Antarctica!) |
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PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness. It runs on all major operating systems, including Linux, UNIX (AIX, BSD, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, Mac OS X, Solaris, Tru64), and Windows. |
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MaxDB is SAP's own database technology (formerly called SAP DB). It is developed and supported by SAP and stands as database for OLTP and OLAP usage that offers high reliability, availability, scalability and a very comprehensive feature set. It is targeted for mySAP Business Suite environments and other applications that require maximum enterprise-level database functionality. |
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Enterprise-class email& group calendaring based on Linux.Scalix Collaboration Platform is the field-proven, commercial-grade email platform that forms the base of all our product editions |
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Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 4.5 is a truly modern, innovative messaging and collaboration application. Zimbra is the leading open source solution for enterprise, service provider, education, and government environments |
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Postfix runs on AIX, BSD, HP-UX, IRIX, LINUX, MacOS X, Solaris, Tru64 UNIX, and other UNIX systems. It provides secure anf fast mail transport. Often used by Internet Service Providers |
| Sendmail | A descendant of the original ARPANET delivermail application, Sendmail is a remarkably flexible program, supporting many kinds of mail transfer and delivery including the overwhelmingly popular SMTP. The original version of Sendmail was written by Eric Allman in the early 1980s at UC Berkeley |
Trenchant Systems believe that Open Source software are key business enablers. When used correctly they can provide the functionality your business requires, without the heavy burden on the bottom line of you business. Contact our sales department for further information.