Why Open Source?

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

Taken from OpenSource.org

Why we like open source

Open source software allows us as a smaller firm to leverage thousands of hours of development done by hundreds of developers. This provides us with a firm starting point for our clients projects at no cost. Since open source projects are worked on by hundreds of people everyday, we've found that they have superior documentation, are created to be more modular and are able to be kept more currently than closed source alternatives. Also if something doesn't work the way we want it, we can change it ourselves.

Why you will like open source

We are able to provide you with a more feature rich and bug free website at a lower cost than if we had to develop everything in house from scratch. Once your project is delivered because you're not locked in from any proprietary license, you are able to continue the development of your website yourself. You're not at the mercy of a major company waiting until their next version is released. You're not at the mercy of a proprietary license revoking your rights to improve your product should you deem fit. Instead you have the choice of hundreds of developers from around the world who create, manage and maintain projects built on the exact same framework as your own. With this in mind you can know that you will not be pigeon holed with a website that is unable to grow with your business.

What are some open source projects

Desktop

Open source is becoming more of an accepted methodology with several larger projects becoming popular even in non-open source desktop environments.

  • Firefox web browser
  • Thunderbird e-mail client
  • VideoLan media player (VLC)
  • Open Office productivity suite

Server

Open source has ruled the server arena for years and continues to gain market share.

  • Linux kernel and related operating systems
  • Apache web server
  • MySQL database server
  • PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java programming languages