An Introduction
Software is, and has been, a major challenge for companies and organizations of every size. Licenses, updates, support, maintenance, bugs, training, and other processes are an everyday struggle which can lead to a lot of lost time and money.
Overall, there are two types of software available to the public which allow us to do what we need to do in our everyday lives; both personally as well as professionally.
We label these two types of software as proprietary and open-source, and the difference between the two could mean the difference of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement a software solution.
Overview / Definitions
Proprietary software, by definition, is:
“Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software
What this means is that the software you purchase, such as Windows operating system, MS Word, Adobe® Photoshop, etc. is licensed in a way that disallows you from modifying its source code to your needs, and restricts you from further distribution (eg - installing on multiple machines, etc.). We’ll break this down a bit further shortly.
Open-source software, by definition, is:
“Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-source license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software
What this means is that you are able to freely acquire (typically) the software, have full access to its source code, have full rights to modify the source, and have full rights to re-distribute the source within the constraints of the open-source license (such as the GNU public license).
Overall, we can already see that there are some stark differences between the two types of software that stand out to us, which we’ll go through now in this next section of “comparisons and contrasts”.
Comparisons & Contrasts
The big issue we see facing many businesses and organizations is high cost of software acquisition and maintenance.
Take Microsoft® Office Suite, for example. A single “seat” or license for MSOS ranges from $120-$350 (home / student to profession, respectively) as per the Microsoft® website (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/). That is PER PERSON, PER PC!
So, as a business (and we’re just speaking retail here - you can obviously get reduced pricing through MS partners and wholesalers) with 20 users, you could be forking out approximately $2,400.00 - $7,000.00 just for your text / spreadsheet / powerpoint presentation software. That’s a hefty price tag.
Now, of course, this software is professionally developed and is the “defacto” of office-required tools. So, your training will typically be less than other pieces of software.
But let’s think about open-source software, and what it means in terms of initial investments. You can easily download Open Office (the MS Office equivalent) for free. It gives you all the same tools that MS Office does, and allows you to install it on as many machines (PC, Mac, Linux) as you wish. That’s an instant $2k-$7k savings you’ve made.
The user interface, while not exact, is very similar to MS Office, and so the learning curve for training, while a little steeper, isn’t too bad.
That being said, the argument of usability between the suites (MS & OO) is one that will probably always be up in the air. Personally, I don’t think that OO is any worse in its usability than MS is, though I’m sure there some diehard Microsoft® people out there that would argue otherwise.
And for the sake of making sure we don’t leave everyone out, let’s not forget to mention our favorite cloud-based solution for office suite software either - Google Docs (Drive). Google Docs is an:
- Accessible (any machine with an internet connection)
- sharable (you can share the files, hosted online, with any user that has an email address, or export them into many different common file types, based on the type of document you’re working with)
- And of course, it’s free.
So, here’s a breakdown of how we can compare some proprietary software to open-source software. There will always be opponents and proponents on each side, but I think the benefits speak for themselves in terms of the value you can get. Also, we are personally seeing many businesses, of different sizes, start to transition to the Google Doc arena for internal communication, innovation, and development of content and resources.
However, this post is not just about the high-level software concept comparisons. We’re a Milwaukee web design and online marketing company, after all, and so we want to make this post a bit more relevant to what we do, and how we work with our clients.
Proprietary vs. Open-source on the Web
Just as with desktop/laptop/netbook/etc.-based software, such as MS Word or OpenOffice, there are also proprietary and open-source software solutions that can be used on the web.
Common examples of proprietary software includes ASP.NET powered packages like TitanCMS, SharePoint, SiteFinity, Kentico. Most of these packages come with a hefty price tag, are closed source (meaning you cannot get access to the source code to modify how the software functions), and funnel you in to their specific design about how they believe things should be done.
Sometimes this can be a good thing, but often times, it can be annoying and create wasted time and money for you to accomplish what you need to get done.
Now, some common examples of open-source software includes WordPress (who hasn’t heard of this?), Joomla!, Drupal, Concrete5, Plone, and more. These platforms are fully accessible in terms of the source code, are free to acquire, and have thousands of add-ons / extensions / plugins that allow you to quickly and easily extend the platforms as you so desire. However, just because something is free, accessible, and extensible, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have weaknesses.
We’ll cover those (and focus on a couple platforms we have access to, and use frequently) next.
To learn more about how Regal Creative can help you and your business succeed and excel online, get in touch with us today!
