Would I Use Open Source Software Over Free Commercial Software?

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Would I use Open Source Software over free commercial software?

Before considering the use of open source software for a business, I think it must be considered whether I would use open source software and why; these reasons, or similar ones, might apply to the business environment. While I mainly use commercial software packages, I do also use open source software programs, namely Firefox. The reason I use Firefox as my default browser over IE or Chrome is because of the customization options that is available. The other two browsers are customizable, but not to the same extent that Firefox is. Perhaps the reason for this customizability is because it is open source, and thus developers are not limited to the amount access that is given to them as in the case of developers of commercial software.

There is also a repository of add-ons, or extensions, that are available to be installed in Firefox. It should be noted that these extensions are not guaranteed to be safe. So if you install an extension it could mess-up your computer, steal your information . . . or work perfectly; there is no guarantee nor does there need to be one. There is no legal ramification for Mozilla should some complication arise.

This would be very hard for a commercial software company to directly implement because there is an agreement that the company's software (e.g. the software will not steal your identity.) To implement this, a commercial company could have testers for the extension to make sure they are safe, this would probably be very time consuming and expensive especially if there are a large number of extensions. Alternatively, they could hire developers who create the extensions, but the limited number of developers certainly could not...

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...n Firefox. If this simple feature is taken from open source software, what other features might commercial software also have implemented? An example of the opposite, open source software taking features from commercial software is OpenOffice. OpenOffice is virtually the same as Microsoft Office; they both have a text editor, spreadsheet, and a slideshow program. Inside these programs the functionality is very close to, if not, the same also.

However, I do not think that open source software threatens to take commercial software out of business. For the simple reason of, 'How many businesses choose to use open source software over commercial software'? Open source software, in my opinion, might undercut a small percentage of the profits of the commercial software companies in the SOHO market, but nothing that would significantly hurt the commercial companies.

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