Open-Source Rocks!

That's right open-source software rocks, well at least some of it does. If you type in open-source in Google you will be overwhelmed with the amount of open-source applications there are for just about every situation you can think of. From content management systems to shopping carts, open-source has it all. There is even an open-source version of Microsoft Office called OpenOffice.

Some of these available applications are well built world class applications that have gone through countless hours of development, refinement and real world testing. However, a lot of open-source software is pure junk and should never be used in a commercial environment. So how do you determine whats junk and whats not. Well you can spend weeks or even months testing the available applications for your specific need or you can hire a developer who has already gone through the painstaking task of elimination and research. Even if you do find the right software you still need a professional to mold and shape the software to fit your specific needs to the T. So in other words open-source rocks for us developers and gives us a way to provide you a high-quality product with a low upfront cost.

Lets talk about cost for second. The term open-source as defined by wikipedia is "software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees". You read that correctly no royalties or fees to use the software. That is huge in the world of small to medium sized business's who don't have the budget to pay for expensive licensing fees usually associated with proprietary software.

Benefits of Open-Source Software

• Reliability
• Stability
• Auditability
• Cost
• Flexibility and Freedom
• Support and Accountability

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