23 August 2005
A Buyer’s guide to open source
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: General .
InfoWorld has a buyer’s guide to open source:
Build or buy? It’s a question that vexes every enterprise IT manager. On the one hand, developing applications from scratch can be a difficult endeavor, one fraught with the possibility of failure. On the other hand, high price tags and the aggravation of installation, maintenance, and support contracts can make purchasing a commercial package equally painful.
If you’ve ever had difficulty deciding between developing an application in-house or purchasing one off the shelf, then open source may be for you. The combination of free access to source code and a worldwide community of developers gives you the best of both worlds. You have the luxury of starting with a mature code base, to which you can add features as your business needs grow.
As recently as a few years ago, however, open source options were limited. Other than Linux, the Apache Web server, a few database servers, and an assortment of developer tools, the open source community didn’t have much to offer in terms of turnkey software. The foundations were there, but full-fledged applications were lacking.
Fortunately, that’s changing. Individual developers and companies alike have flocked to the open source development model. Today there’s a veritable cornucopia of free business software available — from CRM to content management, portals to RFID — some of it remarkably sophisticated.
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