The Business Guide to Open Source Software

When we talk of “Open Source software”, we generally mean software that is licensed under one of the free software licences. Most of these licences are broadly similar, and for the purpose of this article we will focus on the widely-used GNU General Public Licence, more commonly referred to as the “GPL”.

The full text of this licence may be read online, but in essence it grants the user “irrevocable ... unlimited permission to run the unmodified program”. It also grants the user the right to make copies of the program and to distribute them, for a charge if so desired, to others. There is no charge for the license itself.

The licence also specifies that the software author must make the source code freely available, although a nominal charge to cover copying and media costs is permitted.

The Meaning of Free

GPL software is Free Software, but in English the word “free” is ambiguous. It can mean “without charge” as in “free beer”, or it can mean “freedom” as in “free speech”. The sense here is the second  in that it grants the user the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Specifically, it grants the user:

• The freedom to run the program for any purpose
• The freedom to study how the program works and adapt it to his or her needs
• The freedom to redistribute copies
• The freedom to improve the program and release the improvements to the public

More detail on the freedom conferred by Free Software are available online.

The Business Case

What does this mean for businesses that elect to use Open Source software?

• The licence is granted irrevocably. That means that any business decisions you make based upon the fact that you have chosen to use Free Software will not be invalidated by a later change in licensing terms.
• You can legally make and use as many copies of the software as you wish
• There is no requirement to keep a record of licences used, nor is there any need to worry about an external software licence audit
• If the program lacks some feature that would be helpful to your business, you have the option to add that feature (or hire someone to do that for you)

Other Benefits

It is in the interests of the Open Source community that their software interoperates well with other software, both Open Source and Closed Source. To that end, the vast majority of Open Source software conforms to international standards, which results in an IT infrastructure that is easier, and thus cheaper, to maintain.

The fact that the source code is freely available for modification and the fact that users are encouraged to modify the software and distribute their change both result in other benefits:

• Richer feature set: anyone can add the “must-have” feature that they need, which results in those same features being available to all users.
• Fewer bugs: the resolution of bugs in commercial, closed source software is itself a commercial operation in that it costs the author money to do so. Whether any one particular bug gets fixed depends upon the perceived impact to the author's business rather than the impact upon your business. With Open Source software, bugs are often fixed very quickly as a matter of pride, but you retain the ultimate option of fixing it yourself (or hiring someone to do so) if you need to. It's unlikely that you'll ever need to do that, but we believe you should have the option.

What About Security?

If everyone can read the source code, doesn't that make the software less secure? This is a common misconception: it is likely that the opposite is true. Finding a diagram of how a lock works doesn't make your front door less secure. If looking at the diagram revealed a weakness in the lock design, isn't it more likely that the manufacturer would change the design to eliminate the weakness? The same is true of Open Source software in that the openness makes it more likely that reviewers – and there are people who review such code – would highlight possible weaknesses and either resolve them or feed the information back to the author for resolution. We stress “possible” weaknesses because many that are found these days have never been exploited, but removing them leads to higher quality software.

The Small Print

The aim of this page is to give business managers an overview of Open Source software and Free Software. We've glossed over some of the detail  in the interests of giving a concise guide; however, where possible we have given links to more detailed text. If you have any questions arising from this guide, or if you believe it to be inaccurate in any way, please do let us know.