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Selecting Proprietary, Open Source, or Free Software for Business Information Systems

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Selecting Proprietary, Open Source, or Free Software for Business Information Systems

At first glance, the question above would probably lead you to believe that proprietary software should be the obvious choice when selecting between the different types simply because of the reference to the words most important. You could also look at the definitions of the three and be convinced that proprietary software seems to be more compelling than the rest. However, with the recent developments with software in general, I would have to agree with those that argue that open source should be the first choice for any kind of software, and that considering proprietary software should only be an option if it has very specific and valuable features …show more content…

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If this is the case, then why would a company choose proprietary software when even its own developers are starting to realize that they themselves may benefit more from buying into the open source model? While researching the question posed, and trying to get a better understanding of all the different types of software, I came across many arguments of open vs. proprietary. Many of the arguments that I read, the writers all had good information to support their opinion of which type of software they thought was best. One article that I found interesting was posted on a website (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/5204), and it proposed that the debate of “Open source vs. Proprietary” be turned around to “Proprietary software vs. Open “. The writer of this article posed the question, “Why is proprietary the default and not open source?” After carefully researching the different types of software, I found myself asking the same question. If you look closely at all of the so called “compelling advantages” that people tend to think proprietary software has over open, you would clearly see that they aren’t all that compelling. One of the arguments raised has to do with support. There is this belief that proprietary software offers better support......is this only because many consumers feel that if they pay top dollar for a product they in turn

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