Opinions On Open Source Software
Author : Marianne Conway
Submitted : 2011-08-06 12:51:18 Word Count : 512 Popularity: 32
Tags: HTML5 Training, Java Training, Develop Intelligence, web development training
Like a secret family recipe some software companies prefer to keep their programming language and source code a secret. This may give some major software companies a corner on the market but some companies find it better to share their source code with the community that will be using it. This concept of releasing software source codes began in 1983 as part of the free software movement.
What is Open-Source Software?
What do people mean when they say that software is open source? When a piece of software is designated as open-source it means that the program’s source code is available to the public. This allows for public collaboration in the development of software.
Advantages
One of the greatest advantages of open source software is that it is highly customizable. This is due to its accessibility to the public. It allows for people in the general public who are tech-savvy to work with the source code. By publishing open source software it enables people beyond the publishing company to create, manipulate, troubleshoot, and improve upon the software. This makes it so the program is not limited to one company’s development team. With a closed-source program consumers are limited to software that is developed by a single software team, which may consist of a small group of people. Open source software on the other hand is worked on by thousand of peer users. Some may see this as a “too many hands in the cookie jar” situation and perceive this as a negative. The reality of this is quite the opposite. The main advantage of open source software comes from the fact that many programmers have had their run with it. This offers the software more stability and reliability than closed-sourced software.
Perceived Disadvantages
Nothing in life is perfect, it’s a fact. Some of the biggest perceived disadvantages of using open source software have less to do with the actual performance of the program and more to do with the development of it. One of the biggest disadvantages that people associate with open source software is that the development stage can sometimes be murky and shaky. It is often a worry of open source software developers that a project may never reach its completion. Another perceived disadvantage pertains to intellectual property rights. With so many people working on one piece of software it can sometimes become unclear who had their hands on what. This has become an issue as some countries have begun to patent software and algorithms. This is somewhat contrary to the purpose of open source software as it has its foundations in the free software movement. The main goal of this movement was to provide free software to run, modify, and redistribute.
Open Source Programs
• Spring Framework- Application framework designed for Java. Published by SpringSource.
• Hibernate- Object-relational mapping library. Developed by Red Hat
• Struts- Used to develop Java EE web applications. Published by Apache.
• SEAM- Web application framework published by JBoss.
• Google Web Toolkit- Allows for web developers to
create Java-script font-end applications in Java.
Author's Resource Box
Develop Intelligence is the leader in Java training and HTML5 training. To schedule your own training visit Develop Intelligence Home Page
Article Source:
Articles Alive








Print Article
BookMark Article




10 newest articles RSS
