Enterprise open source Toolkit
Story: Specsavers sees clear benefits in open source
There needs to be a culture shift - open source yes - free -no
Working in a large educational establishment I am fully aware of open source potential. I am also aware that to senior management it is seen as attractive only because it is "free". Wanting "something for nothing" is a peculiarly British trait, but is, I believe, wholly the wrong motivation for considering open source software. The prime motivation should always be efficiency, quality and flexibility. Generally Open Source Free software offers all this AT A PRICE.
Open Source = community developed software. What does this mean?
In simple terms if you take on open source software then you should be committed to becoming part of the community that develops it. Because much of the open source software appears indistinguishable from off the shelf products people are lulled into believing that it is the same thing, but free - it is not! If everyone (particularly large organisations) sit back and just use the software it will stagnate and may eventually dissapear. There needs to be recognition that you will need people with development expertise, and to allow those people time to contribute to the development community in the organisations time. When you buy Microsoft software you are helping to pay the the salaries of the developers who will keep the software up to date and develop new tools to meet changing demands. When you move open source then no one is being paid by you to do this. For smaller organisations an option could be to go open source and pay for technical support, thereby indirectly supporting development, but for a larger organisation to go open source and simply develop it for their own needs without contributing to the community ammounts to freeloading on the responsible organisations which do.
I believe that open source is a great step forward (well in a way it is a step backwards to the days of DOS when many people developed software with the "share and enjoy" phillosophy) BUT if it simply becomes a mean of putting big software developers out of business without putting in place responsible attitiudes then it could seriously damage the future of software.
You are not simply using software, as you do with paid for software, but taking part ownership with all the responsibilities that entails.
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