OPEN SOURCE PRODUCTS

Open Source Products

Abstract

This research focuses the different aspects of open source products in emerging market today. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was formed in February 1998 by Eric S. Raymond and Bruce Perens. With at least 20 years of evidence from case histories of closed software development versus open development already provided by the Internet developer community, the OSI presented the 'open source' case to commercial businesses, like Netscape. The OSI hoped that the usage of the label "open source," a term suggested by Peterson of the Foresight Institute at the strategy session, would eliminate ambiguity, particularly for individuals who perceive "free software" as anti-commercial. This paper explores the current market for open source products in the commercial sector, and in public administration. Open Source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available to a group or network that further develop and improve the original software voluntarily on the network. The Open Source movement has gained momentum as commercial enterprises have adopted Linux as the primary option operating system. This research discusses the benefits and pitfalls for different types of organisation of adopting open source products. This paper considers the emergence of open standards, and comment upon the impact this is expected to have in the future. Open source software and free software are different terms for software which comes with certain rights, or freedoms, for the user. They describe two approaches and philosophies towards free software. Open source and free software (or software libre) both describe software which is free from onerous licensing restrictions. It may be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Free software is not the same as freeware, software available at zero price. The study includes a consideration of emerging standards in information exchange, the ownership of those standards, and their integration with existing and legacy systems.

Open Source Products

Introduction

Open source in itself is a success story. From being a niche concept, it has become a mainstream movement (well, more or less) and has received the attention of both individuals and businesses worldwide. (Plotkin, 1998) There are thousands of open source projects and products out there, but which ones are the most successful? By successful we mean widely used and widely known. While there are many successful open source products, a few stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Types of open source products

FreeBSD - operating system derived from Unix

Linux - operating system based on Unix

Eclipse - software framework for "rich-client applications"

Apache - HTTP web server

Tomcat web server - web container (Michael, 2001)

Moodle - course management system

Mozilla Firefox - web browser

Mozilla Thunderbird - e-mail client

OpenOffice.org — office suite

OpenSolaris - Unix Operating System from Sun Microsystems

Mediawiki — wiki server software, the software that runs Wikipedia

Drupal — content management system

Joomla — content management system

Discussion

It's fascinating how pervasive these products actually are if you think about it. If you use the Internet at all, you will most likely run into all of these products every single day even if you're not always aware ...