How open source business software works

Open doors — open source software

So you've heard of open source business software. Maybe you even use it. You know it's free and can be just as good (or better) than paid-for software.

Isn’t it too good to be true? How does open source work?

Open source: a simple idea

All software is built from code. With traditional 'closed-source' software, the company that creates the software keeps its code secret. Open source software is based on a simple idea: giving this code away.

Isn’t this mad? Not exactly. With free access to the source code, enthusiastic open source software users voluntarily fix problems themselves – often for no other reason than they enjoy doing so. Most pieces of open source software have built up communities of people who are loyal to that piece of software and eager to help others by improving it.

Anyone can contribute to open source software simply by reporting what they want (or don't want) from it, and by testing what does or doesn't work as volunteers make improvements.

This feedback drives the development of the software by those enthusiastic users, and is equivalent to the expensive market research that traditional software companies undertake.

Open source can reduce costs

When code is open source, software developers can reuse it in any way they want. It means nobody has to reinvent the wheel - if someone’s done it, it’s there to be built upon.

This reduces the time it takes to develop software and therefore brings down the costs. What’s more, to stop others taking unfair advantage of open source software, any new software developed with existing open source code must itself be made available for other people to build upon and change.

This creates opportunities if your business is looking into developing custom software. Instead of scoping and creating a piece of software from scratch, you can identify some appropriate open source software and then add extra features as needed. 

Open source software for business

If you're trying to get something done but don't have the right software to hand, searching for an open source package can be a good way to find a free solution.

Good places to find open source software are:

If you're contemplating using open source software more widely in your business, you should treat its implementation just like any other software. For instance, although the package you want is free to download, you must still check it's compatible with your existing software and that your staff know how to use it.

Paying for support

Although the source code for open source software is freely available, there can still be costs involved in using it in your business. If you intend to use open source software widely, you need to know that you can trust and depend on it.

This is where you may have to spend some money. Although the software itself is free, you might have to pay an IT supplier to provide support, training and documentation. (Indeed, many open source users are happy to pay for the security of knowing that if they have a problem, someone will be available to help.)

For a business considering open source software, the key thing to remember is that because the software itself costs nothing, the cost of this comprehensive support, training and documentation usually compares very well to the price of equivalent closed source software.

And once you realise that, the question is not 'how does open source software work', but 'why did we not consider open source software before?'