What is Open Source Software ? - Examples, benefits and drawbacks

What is Open Source Software? 

    Open source software defines a software that is freely accessible with its source code. It allows anyone to view, make changes, and distribute the software. Open source software inspires collaboration and community-driven development, where individuals or groups can contribute to the improvement and expansion of the software. A license must be purchased for the software in order to make it open source. The fact that it is freely distributed gives rise to the term "public domain software." 

Examples of Open Source Software  

   There are numerous examples of open source software, some of the examples are categorized based on operating system, programming based, and application based, they are enlisted below:

1. Linux Operating System : Linux is a user-friendly open source operating system that is mainly used in smartphones, mostly Androids, embedded devices, computers, servers, etc. 
2. Python: Python is one of the most commonly used programming and scripting languages used by software developers. It is easy to use and create applications like video games, mobile applications, and web applications. 
3. WordPress: WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) that contains themes that are personalized and have readily available features. One can create blogs, e-commerce sites, business websites, and so on. It also contains plenty of plug-ins, almost a thousand.  
4. Git: Git is a distributed type of control system that is easily accessible and open source, also an application based open source software. It is used to keep track of the source codes and projects created by the developer. It aids in managing code repositories and allows collaboration as well. 
5. Mozilla Firefox: Firefox is an open-source web browser search engine that was created by Mozilla. It is another type of Internet Explorer that provides user security and displays web pages based on keywords used for searching. It is included in the category of application based open source software. 
6. Apache Tomcat: Apache is an open source web server. It is a servlet container for Java code. It is mainly used for storing data, maintaining and developing data, processing requests, serving on the server for security, etc. It is application based open source software. 

        Other examples include the VLC media player, Google Android (mobile phone based operating software), Blender (video and animation based multimedia editor), LibreOffice (office based productivity suite software), etc. 

Benefits and Drawbacks of Open Source Software 

Benefits of Open Source Software 

      The benefits of open source software are enlisted as follows: 

1. High Caliber: OSS (Open Source Software) is of high caliber when it is accepted and reviewed by a community of developers. The software can save time and money, is highly secured, provides high performance, etc. The high quality of open source can be built by its high-level source code in the development of projects with its quicker speed. 
2. Cheaper cost: The OSS is entirely free, with some licensing restrictions, and is mainly used in cheaper projects, mostly in small businesses. It saves costs for small businesses. It is an affordable tool for companies. 
3. Partnership and communal support: Open source promotes collaboration and support from developer communities. The community of open source software mainly includes those who test, develop, foster, and use it. Many a time, the community forms a group and arranges a meet-up. The communities and forum also support open source projects and aid in solving problems.  
4. Accessibility and Personalization: Open source software is accessible to everyone, including potential users and people with any disability. Open source is freely accessible. Open source enables developers to make changes according to their requirements and has the flexibility to add more new features and fix bugs, along with providing more control.

      Further benefits of open source software include its flexibility, employment and skill development opportunities, transparency, capacity for promoting digital transformation, vendor independence, security, etc. 

Drawbacks of Open Source Software 

     Similarly, the drawbacks of open-source software include the following points: 

1. Copyright: Generally, the OSS is free to use, but the actual rights are set by the author (owner) of the software. The rights need to be secured by the author under the copyright law. A few times, it happens that some of the developers create software by copying some codes belonging to a third party without understanding the copyright concerns. Due to it, the company might be charged with a copyright violation.  
2. Security issues: Open source faces major issues as security is a concern, as it is free to modify and available. Cybercriminals might add malicious code to the readily available source code. There are risks in downloading such files. Some of the open source project developers and contributors aren't security professionals, or they do not test the software properly, which might be one of the factors in creating security issues. Proper testing with bug fixes, modifications, improvement in software, solving common issues by community of developers is needed that can lower the security risks.  
3. Compatibility and warranty concerns: Compatibility in terms of open source means that the software (here it can be about driver software for hardware) is compatible with the hardware. Sometimes there is a possibility that some open source driver software might be incompatible and need specialized driver software like commercial software. The warranty does not guarantee security or assistance for the product, which is created and maintained by the individuals. Open source software is not responsible for copyright compensation and protection, and it also has a shorter warranty. There are open forums where recommendations and suggestions are discussed, which are tested by the community as far as flaws in software are concerned.

     Other drawbacks include the lack of technical customer support in some cases, a lack of provider background, limited documentation with a limited user interface, the need for continuous development with maintenance, and many more. 

Conclusion 

         Open source software promotes overall security and stability by enabling other programmers and security experts to find and fix bugs and other security issues much more quickly. Also, it promotes transparency, innovation, community support, and participation, making it a useful resource for developers and users. Although it is free of charge, open source earns money by assisting the user in installation, use, and, lastly, troubleshooting the software. It is gaining more importance in computing technology. It helps in improving skills, learning, and developing projects for programmers and students. Open source has been adopted, flourished, and proved successful in technologies like artificial intelligence, data analysis, operating systems, web development, etc.