It is surprising that then even today (2007) most business do not really understand, and many are still unaware of what open source is and what it could mean to their business.

If you are one of the lucky one then you have probably heard the term "open source" being interchangeably used with "free" software.  It is particularly prevalent in the Internet or web world with solutions such Linux, Perl or Apache.

Unfortunately though people have developed the impression that open source software is not for serious or complex applications, and I am here to tell you to think again.

Etoys.com was the third busiest e-commerce site during the 2000 Christmas season. They served over 2.5 million page views and processed 20,000 orders per hour. Etoys was built using Perl running the Apache server under the Linux operating system, all open source software tools and this is only the beginning.

What is Open Source Software?

Open Source software generally is distributed under a license that guarantees the right to read, modify, redistribute and use the software freely.  It can be written by individuals within a community or businesses in a particular market segment.

Tens of thousands of developers and several large corporations such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Intel have chosen to participate in the open source software movement.

Some of most successful and robust open source applications drive the internet as we know it, just take a look at some of these historical facts (its even more dominant today);

·        
58% of the web is using the Apache Web Server.
This is compared to 28% for Microsoft’s IIS Web Server.

·        
Linux and Free BSD, both open source flavors of
UNIX, are the dominant operating system for web servers, not Microsoft Windows
2000 or Windows NT. Linux has a 34% market share for web server operating
systems. Microsoft Windows has a 23% market share (source: Linux Today: www.linuxtoday.com)

·        
The most widely used language for web
programming is Perl, not Microsoft’s Active Server Pages. Perl has been often
referred to as the "glue" that holds the Internet together.

·        
Over 60% to 80% of e-mail travels across the
Internet using the open source program, Send Mail.

It’s a power application without the (any) price tag?

If the fact that it’s the power behind the internet does not impress you then take a look at these organizations that are have developed business around it;

yahoo.com
is running free BSD (free Berkley
Standard Unix)

amazon.com
is running Linux, the Apache Server, and the e-commerce system is written in
Perl.

google.com
(the worlds largest search engine) is running Linux

altavista.com
is running Linux

cnn.com uses Perl

But its not just the internet, the world of open source have created operating systems, server environments, office like applications, telephone systems, CRM, ERP and all sorts of applications that were only in the grasp of the large enterprises (due to cost), that can help to power a small to medium sized business to its destination.

There is however, just one small caveat and that is that many of these applications do require some technical skill and a few of them just aren’t user friendly at all to get working.  With the right choose of application and expertise though they can become very useful and powerful tools.

Benefits of Open Source

Cost: Due to the licensing mechanism it’s FREE; just get yourself somebody who is technically able to make it work for you.

Software Source Code: You have access to the source code, unlike proprietary software where you are limited by the software producer to make fixes and enhancements you are free to modify the software and customize it in order to suit your application.

Scalability and Robustness: What can I say; it powers the internets most highly demanding services and is used by all sorted of organizations and businesses.

Large Support Community: a large community of developers that communicate through on-line discussion groups supports many open source offerings. This allows common problems to be easily solved and bugs to be quickly exposed and fixed.  

Security and Protection of Proprietary Data: There is a myth that open source software is more vulnerable to attack than proprietary solutions. Actually, the opposite is often true. Because the source code is exposed, it is often easier for a security minded software community to close security holes or breeches.

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