Open Source in Business

Open Source in Business
This is a repository of information on Open Source applications and their application to Business. Long-term Goals include:
  • To identify Business Open Source applications, by category
  • To identify measures that show the success or lack of success of those applications
  • To consider the business Benefits and Features lists of the listed applications
  • To consider the reliability and robustness (from a business/technical standpoint)

To help accelerate this process any visitor is able to contribute by commenting at the appropriate point in the book. Comments may be incorporated when the page owner next visits that page.

It is often the case that our business focus on a particular application will result in that one receiving more attention in these pages.

Why Use Open Source?

Why should we use FREE software?
Why not pay for an app that is reasonably priced for the work that the developers have done?
...after all with Open Source you get it free and then use it in your business to make a profit don't you?
 
It's a reasonable question. Here's my answer: it seems to me that small (and home-based) businesses are helped tremendously by open-source free software. Without a free Apache, Linux, PHP, MySQL, Java, and so on, they might not   be in business in the first place.

Hopefully, the business will grow. And, with that growth will come the need for more advanced solutions that can work within the business plan as paid-for software. Commercial software will become necessary because the business will have more employees that need software that networks, etc. And it will be necessary because I'll need software that helps save time. Time for the starting/side/home business isn't as critical as when you have people on the clock. The ideal producer of free open-source software is one that:
  • meets the needs of the small/startup/home business with full-featured, free, software
  • provides a "Professional" commercial version of their software that meets the needs of the next-size-up business OR provides additional services that work with the above free, open-source software, for example in many cases this might be professional consulatnts that are experts the the said OS system..

In recognition that of using only free, open-source software, the business is likely to charge customers bare-bones prices. This is for 2 reasons:

  1. To compete with those that have more resources
  2. As an acknowledgment that the business is using free, open-source software.


The free open-source "movement" is a great catalyst for bootstrapping the economy.

If you asked the same question ("why free"?) to those that make the Open Source software mentioned in this Open SOurce list, they are sure to elaborate on why they do it for free. If big players like those see the reason for it being free, then one might conclude there must be some very good reasons.