The Benefits of Open Source Software

    I am a big supporter of open source software (wikipedia.com). Many of my posts will be open source software (OSS) and GNU/Linux, a popular OSS operating system.  Since many computer users are completely unaware of OSS, let me explain a little bit about what it is and how it is used.

    Open source software is used and developed by many hobbyists and professionals worldwide.  Some popular examples of this would be:

Google uses open source software on their servers, a variant of Linux.

Amazon, MCI, Motorola and IBM all use Linux.

The web browser Mozilla Firefox (mozilla.com) is open source software.

A large portion of the Internet is hosted on BSD and Linux servers, both are open source software.

    Without any knowledge of open source software, it is still likely that you use it every day.

    The vast majority of open source software is available free of charge. This does not mean that the software is of less value or usefulness to the consumer, it is merely a byproduct of the nature of open source software. The development model is much different from proprietary software.
   
    Many software companies still develop their products using proprietary software, and do not allow others to see the source code for their products.  This means that a very small group of concentrated programmers create the program.  While this is very good from one standpoint, it also has many drawbacks.  Open source software benefits from having many different people with different skills and viewpoints develop software from their own perspective.  Many different experts in the field can also check each other's work by inspecting the source code.  If there are security flaws, more efficient ways of providing a solution to a problem, or if new features can be added, that can easily be done by open source developers since they have the source code.

    Well developed open source projects will have many of the following characteristics:

It will be available free of charge

It will run quickly and efficiently on current and old computers.

It will have many different features that are all integrated into the main program

It will be very secure, and not susceptible to viruses and / or spyware.

    From time to time I will be adding links and report my findings on various things relating to computers, technology, OSS, and Linux.  I only hope that I can provide some insight and point you to new things that will enrich your computing experience.