Open Source Software: What are the benefits?

What Are the Benefits of Choosing Free Software?

What is Free Software?

Free Software is software whose code is made available to users.

As such, it comes with 4 fundamental freedoms:

• The freedom to use the software: users can use all of the software’s features
• The freedom to copy the software: it is possible to own a copy of the software without being accused of fraud, counterfeiting, or piracy
• The freedom to study the software: since the code is open, users can fully study it and identify its strengths, its structure, the technology used, and so on.
• The freedom to modify the software and redistribute modified versions: after studying the code, users can modify the parts they want, adding or removing features — in other words, use it as a base to build a tailor-made piece of software. Finally, this modified version can be distributed by the person who made the changes.

What Are the Benefits of Having Free Software?

Customization:

Open code makes it easier to add (or remove) new features and to translate software into different languages and dialects, as well as to support development in organizations or countries that lack the necessary resources.

Project visibility:

The technical content is made available and documented; the pace of development is known, and it is easy to follow its progress.

Community:

In the development of a Free Software solution, the community is a powerful and significant virtual resource. User groups and well-known associations generally organize meetups between the various players involved, making them all accessible to one another.

Code quality:

Open code unconsciously pushes developers to pay particular attention to code quality. The community can be strict, but also encouraging and supportive, and ultimately helps developers improve.

Code security:

Knowing the details of a software’s code also helps guarantee its security. Security flaws can be detected by independent auditors or by the community. A word of caution on security: secrecy is not security!

Independence:

When you use proprietary software, you are dependent on the publisher and distributor of the products. In other words, if they cease operations, continuing to use the software becomes difficult, if not impossible.

As for reversibility, you are no longer dependent on the publisher to migrate your data to another piece of software.

Software sustainability:

This is guaranteed by its openness, just as data sustainability is guaranteed by compliance with international norms and standards, which are widely respected in the Free Software world.

Acquisition cost:

True Free Software does not charge a license fee for its use. That said, this does not mean that implementing it is « free of charge. » Indeed, there is often confusion between « free » as in freedom and « free » as in cost — this comes from the English word « free, » which can mean both. Part of the budget this frees up is allocated to support and training, which improves the chances of a successful rollout.