advantages and disadvantages of general purpose application software

Unlike with commercial software, where you have to adhere to the vendor ’ s requirements and limits, open source users have complete control over their software. Users of open-source software benefit from the freedom to modify the software in a way that suits their business needs. That’s why closed software is seen as safer, although the risk of hidden backdoor Trojan s is always a possibility.

In the case of closed software, only the vendor developers can see and edit the source code. All it takes for a disaster is a single programmer to incorporate some malware into the software. With hundreds of developers working on the software, there is a chance that some of them could have malicious intentions. Open-source software is not developed in a controlled environment. Large enterprises can take weeks or months to deal with vulnerabilities and issue a fix. On the other hand, this is not the case with commercial software. Bugs and other issues tend to be dealt with as soon as they’re caught by the community members. Open source advocates assert that open source software is more secure overall compared to proprietary software. This being said, both open-source and proprietary software can be discontinued for whatever reason. There is always the possibility that the developers of a program lose interest in working further on the software or just move on to another project. This doesn’t apply to FOSS because you can seek help in user communities or hire individual programmers if necessary. Furthermore, if a commercial company that created the software goes out of business, you lose the support, patches and everything else their services included. Anyone can contribute to making the software better without any vendor confinements. If you’re having an urgent issue, proprietary software, backed by top-tier, support might be a better choiceīecause anyone can access the source code, open-source software can evolve continuously. Although you can seek help in relevant communities for free, the support comes at a time price and no one is obliged to help. Open-source software doesn’t possess user manuals and access to experts who are familiar with the software. Commercial vendors offer ongoing support and this is a major thing if you don’t possess technical skills. The key advantage of commercial software is the service & support. A handful of paid developers working for vendors can’t compete with that. Another pair of eyes is always a plus, or in this case, hundreds or thousands of eyes. This means there’s a greater chance that someone will notice a flaw or a bug and fix it in no time. Usually, thousands of expert developers work on making and constantly improving the open-source software. Also, consider the costs of the implementation and staff training associated with introducing new software in the office. Instead, you have to either deal with it in-house or hire external help. You can’t yank your vendor ’ s chain to fix the issue because there is none. If any problem occurs that needs immediate attention it’s up to you to put out the fire and those costs. Sometime down the road costs for FOSS software can stack up. After all, free stuff is always good, right? But, no initial costs doesn’t mean that there aren’t any… which leads us to our first argument against it. If you’re on a tight budget it might be a good idea to go open source instead of breaking the bank for costly solutions. You just need to download the code from a legitimate source and you’re good to go.

There are little to no upfront costs for open-source software. Let’s take a close look at the top pros and cons of using free and open-source software in the business place. Using open source in the business place has some drawbacks that need to be considered too. Why? It’s simple, open-source software offers many compelling benefits to the business sector.īut, just like with anything else in life, there are two sides to the coin.

The times of open source software being met with skepticism by entrepreneurs and business professionals are long behind us. Now, FOSS has made its way into the computers of many enterprises such as Amazon, IBM, and Google, just to name a few. Back then running your business on open-source software was unimaginable. One thing is for sure, FOSS has come a long way since the 80s. Others disagree and point out the importance of performance assurance delivered by a successful commercial company. One argument is that the open-source method of developing software is far superior to commercial methods. Contrary to it, proprietary software is copyrighted and the source code is not available.īoth the open source and the commercial movement have strong advocates in their ranks. In plain words, this means that anyone can freely access, distribute and modify such software. FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) is software whose source code is openly shared with anyone.

Advantages and disadvantages of general purpose application software