Concept
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) includes free
software of Open Source origins, and Commercial Open Source Software.
This
is a software solution for which the human-readable source code is made
available, thus permitting the users to use, change, improve, or
redistribute it in a modified or unmodified form. This is subject to
flexible licensing conditions that promote knowledge redistribution.
Open
Source Software (OSS) solutions are an alternative solution to
classic proprietary commercial solutions, such as office tools, CRM,
operating systems, databases, or collaboration software.
Recently,
OSS has become pervasive with proprietary providers reaping the
benefits, leading Gartner to predict that by 2012, some 80% of
commercial software will include some embedded element of OSS.
Trajectory
Open
standards to promote interoperability between many vendors.
Flexible
in-pricing schemes where it is possible to pay for support and updates,
or use free software if in-house expertise exists.
Free access to
source enables rapid tailoring and bug-fixing, also future- proofing the
product.
A technically better product through open scrutiny of
the source code and a more important ‘natural selection’ system not
present in proprietary software.
Reliability is increased and
enhanced by the widespread and diverse levels of testing undertaken.
Security vulnerabilities and bugs tend to be fixed more rapidly.
Support
can be obtained from a number of different sources (whether in- house
expertise or commercial subscription), giving a wider choice for the
user community.
Application areas’ operating systems (server and
desktop), developer tools, application servers, databases, CRM,
network-routing, and security tools now moving into almost all aspects
of IT selection.
Migrating to OSS for certain applications
attracts specialist and preferential support. SAP’s reference
development platform is based on OSS, which attracts priority support.
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