Open Source and your Bottom Line PART 1

A little history can't hurt



Ahhhh.....the age old question "proprietary vs. Open Source". It's hard to believe that Linux has been around since 1991 when Linus Torvalds created it out of his dislike of windows and DOS and his fascination with UNIX. But, even before the creation of Linux, a new generation of software and collaboration called "Open Source" had emerged.

Open Source software has been around long before Linux (To read more click here or here). But it wasn't until the Internet became widespread and the GNU/Linux movement in the early 90's that open source gained momentum and began spreading to mainstream usage. Up to that point and even some time after, Open Source was an underground movement (at least on a corporate level) and few people new about or had access to it.


One of the key successes of Open Source software is the fact that it's "source code", the programming language that the software is made up of is free to use and free to manipulate, change and copy. Notice I did not say "free to own" because in understanding the GPL (General Public License) you will realize that the software belongs to everyone and no one. What this also allows is several programmers or even whole programming communities to collaborate on a project from all over the world and constantly improve upon it. The bottom line here is a constantly evolving and maturing product.


Now you're wondering why anyone would spend hours and hours building software that they give away. Well I'd have to say there are many reasons. first, as you explore open source software certain things are not free. Some software is built as a platform or base product and a group or organization will sell you an easy way to work with that platform. Others (And this is true of the many corporate versions of Linux) will sell you technical support and value added services to go along with the free software. However, if you talk to a programmer that writes code for open source projects you will find it is for the challenge, love, thrill, accomplishment and even just sticking it to the big boys (Microsoft). Continued in part 2