6 Benefits to Using Open Source Software as a Small Business
Small businesses have to be smart with their money. Your resources are limited and you can’t afford to spend a lot of time testing and trialling different technologies. However, surviving in the modern world without technology is nearly impossible. Therefore, small businesses must be able to latch on to any opportunity they find and make the most of software around them. For this, open source software is the best possible option.
But what is open source software and how can a small business benefit from it?
Open source software in a nutshell
According to the official definition by the Open Source Initiative, open source software is “computer software which is distributed
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2. Reliable and secure
Open source software also has a reputation of being secure and reliable. Because the source code is under constant public scrutiny, the quality of development remains high and problems in the code tend to get fixed fast. Thousands of developers test the code continuously, meaning that any performance or security related problems get resolved quickly.
3. Transparency
Related the above point is the transparency you can enjoy with open source software. Since the source code is available for anyone to see, you don’t have to worry about hidden features that might put your small business information at risk. If you use traditional software, you essentially need to trust the vendor’s word – you have no way of knowing what the code will actually do or the information it gathers. With the public source code, you are always able to check exactly what the software does and what this means to your data.
4. Flexible
Since you are free to change, tweak and use the open source software as you please, it gives a lot of flexibility to small businesses. You don’t need to worry about the vendor changing terms of use or adding new elements to the software that you don’t want to use. Furthermore, there is no fear of the vendor withdrawing support from the software and thus creating a problem for your small business. Your business is free to use the product and due to the near-zero initial set-up cost, you are flexible to change to another software if you want
2. The rise of open source software has lowered computing costs for start-up and blue chip companies worldwide.
First World Savings and Loan is a financial institution that processes credit card transactions and loan applications online. We are currently considering implementing an open source infrastructure. This could potentially save us over $4,000,000 per year in licensing fees for the software we are currently using. However, due to our business needs; we must still comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). We must comply with SOX, because we are a publicly-traded financial institution; PCI-DSS, because we process online credit card transactions; and GLBA, because we are a financial institution. All
One of the good thing about it is that it is free to use and distribute to your other computers. Linux is not a fully operation system, and it needs additional software in order for it to work to its full potential. There are so many different packages, that there will be one that will fit you needs. Even though it is not a fully operation system, and can be loaded on most computer except Mac, is still only have just a few virus problems, good graphic interface and still good for use, but not much
| Employees may need to learn how to use such limited choice of general purpose software.
(2) Reliability: since the open source is distributed peer review software and often developed through collaborative that makes it to be more reliability. Also, there are many open source software that have proven to be both reliable and potent over Internet such as DNS, Apache and languages such as HTML and Perl. (3) Good business: open source software gets closest to what the user need because of competition between vendors to involved to make better capability and quality each time to meet the user needs. Thus, that would also help to drive a high return investment for investors on another economic
The current hardware within the organization will support the Linux platform and architecture. This makes a Linux implementation more cost efficient, because the Linux operating system is open source, allowing licensing for the operating system to be almost free, and maintenance quite minimal in cost, when compared to its Widows competitor. The implementation of Linux within the organization can also accommodate the use of several of their Windows based applications.
There are several advantages of using Cloud Computing, for example: “To begin, businesses can have lower cost computers for users.” Alijabre explains that cloud computing can be very beneficial for the businesses. Moreover, businesses will bring great amount of profit into their company, and it will be easy to use it. Alijabres goes on to provide several examples why cloud computing is better. One of of the most important reason why companies are moving towards cloud computing is the lower cost of the system. “To begin, businesses can have lower cost computers for users.” He explains that small business will not need computers that are high performance based. Business can get less expensive computers and store all of their data online instantly, without having them to worry about the space in a
Based on Davidson and Kumagai’s (2008) article, list three advantages and risks associated with open source software.
In order to minimize the impact of the syndrome with open source projects, Hayden suggests that it is essential that everyones opinions' are heard and expressed in the way they feel most comfortable expressing. The author also explains that Hayden's mentor was his most effective method in pushing him to meet people and speak up when there are issues that need to be addressed.
With an open source program, anybody can create for the program, giving it a much bigger foundation for designers and gives them a greater sense of proprietorship as they can change whatever they like (Sacks, 2015).
Software has become an integral part of our society. The economic success of our country depends on the success of the software industry. ``Open source ' ' software, software which users are allowed to modify and redistribute, is a very important part of the software industry
Free software is free, users can change code, and source code is available to anyone.
4. Analysis: What is open source software and how could Pinterest take advantage of it?
Successful projects where software engineering methods have been applied include Linux, the space shuttle software, and automatic teller machines. When it is cheaper to run a business or
With the public cloud you are entrusting others with your data, even if it is in your locked area as for in an apartment someone else also has a key. You have to put trust in someone else you don’t know or haven’t meet with which means you are trusting someone like Amazon (4) or Microsoft (3) to make sure the person is trustworthy. Some advantages of the cloud is that you have the ability to get it up and going at a very