As incredible as it appears, there are outfits and foundations out there that actively develop and distribute software for free. The reason for them doing this is varied, but the benefits to the customers is immense.
Way back in the 1970’s, computer geeks and nerds would create software and distribute it to other hobbyists for free to try and improve it. Along came a man called Bill Gates who saw a business opportunity in building software for computers and constructed Altair BASIC. Rather alarmingly for him, his software was also given away around and he ended up writing a pointed letter pointing out why software should not be free (try Googling Bill Gates Open Letter).
Recently, the open source community has been winning a significant foothold in the software market, probably caused by developing countries who can’t afford the licensing fees of commercial software like Windows, Excel, Dreamweaver and even Programming Languages.
There are free versions of virtually everything, from office applications to computer applications. The open source concept has even hit the food and drink market with open source recipes for wine and beer now free on the World Wide Web. I am even typing this informative article on a piece of open source software called Open Office, a free substitute to MS Word, and it’s running on Ubuntu, a free alternative to Windows or Mac OS X.
When it comes to the Internet, there is a plethora of free around to run any kind of site. Web development companies such as Wordpress and Wikimedia Foundation release solutions free for webmasters to use. What makes it extremely attractive is that open source customization can be undertaken by most of companies around the Earth.
Choosing open source software to power your site sets up a great base from which to begin, for example Wordpress is suitable for probably any kind of site, but with a bit of Wordpress customization you can have it meet your exact desires for a fraction of the price of developing it from fom the start.
Before you buy your next software, always look to see if there is an open source option on the market. Particularly during these economic conditions, open source products may be one way you or your organization can lower its costs.
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