As incredible as it appears, there are hundreds of businesses and foundations out there that actively create and distribute software for free. The reason for them opening up their software depends on company to company, but the benefits to the users is immense.
Way back in the 1970′s, computer hobbyists and nerds would build software and give it to others for nothing to try and make it better. That was until a man called Bill Gates who saw a business opportunity in creating software for computers and designed Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his product was also passed around and he ended up writing a pointed letter explaining why software should not be free (Google Bill Gates Open Letter).
In recent years, the open source community has been gaining a big slice in the software market, probably caused by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Excel, Dreamweaver and even Programming Languages.
There are open source versions of virtually everything, from operating systems to computer applications. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now free on the Web. I am actually writing this brief article on a piece of open source software called Open Office, a free substitute to MS Word, and it’s powered by Ubuntu, an open source substitute to Windows or Mac OS X.
When it comes to websites, there is a lot of free around to power any kind of site. Web development companies such as WordPress and Wikimedia Foundation release scripts free for businesses to use. What makes it incredibly effective is that open source customization can be undertaken by a number of companies around the world.
Deciding on open source software to power your site provides a great base from which to start, for example WordPress is fantastic for probably any sort of website, but with a bit of WordPress customization you can have it meet your exact requirements for half of the cost of creating it from nothing.
Before you buy your next software, always look to discover if there is an open source option available. Especially relevant during these economic conditions, open source scripts could be one way you or your business can lower its costs.