The Power of Open Source

CHANGING TIMES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

|||The Power Of Open Source Software, Moore’ Law and More|||

Open Source Software refers to those software which can be freely run, studied, examined, modified, and redistributed by everyone who has a copy. This software, dubbed “free software” in 1983, has also come to be known as “open-source software”, “software libre”, “FOSS”, and “FLOSS”. “Free”, here, is about being unfettered, not about cost.
Basically what advantage you have with Open Source is that you would be using something that is customized and can be further done so. You need not worry about the costs that could gobble up a substantial amount of money from your pocket.
The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very important. It enables the unlimited tuning and improvement of a software product. It also makes it possible to adapt it to changing conditions, and to reach a detailed understanding of how the system works. This is why many experts are reaching the conclusion that to really extend the lifetime of an application, it must be available in source form.
In Computers there is one very famous Moore’s Law. It is the empirical observation made in 1965 that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months.

“The first microprocessor only had 22 hundred transistors. We are looking at something a million times that complex in the next generations—a billion transistors. What that gives us in the way of flexibility to design products is phenomenal.”
—Gordon E. Moore

Original Graph by Gordon Moore

The most popular formulation is of the doubling of the number of transistors on integrated circuits every 18 months.

So, we can clearly see that this law holds truth to this very day. Coming back to Open Source… As per the law, hardware changes are expected in computer science very rapidly. It is at this very point that the power of open source comes into play. Software released without its source code or as we would call it—a closed source software—would not be able to survive in the scenario for much time. The right to use the software in any way. This, combined with redistribution rights, ensures a large population of users(only if the software is useful enough), which helps in turn to build up a market for support and customization of the software. This would attract more and more developers to work in the project. Ultimately it helps to improve the quality of the product, and to improve its functionality. This, once more, will cause more and more users to give the product a try, and probably to use it regularly. In contrast with proprietary software, the user gets guarantee of ample support. This support is available free of cost to everyone over and through the online community. Most often, this support is superior to proprietary solutions. As for the limitations, all Open Source is a “Work-in-Progress”—When we say this, it is true for some but not for all. The key components like Linux (Operating System), Apache (Web Server), MySQl etc are dominating “prime time” internet with stable, secure and quality solutions. Some are still under development but workable and for those individuals or companies that might be using them, they are good enough.
So, Hail Open Source because it gives you the power, freedom, choice and control.

I gave the same article for the school magazine