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Backup Schmackup : I'm Afraid, Very Afraid!
"Why should you be afraid?", I can hear you ask. I just got an email from my friend Miche who said, "My laptop is sick at the hospital. Hard Drive failure. Am praying data can be retrieved." Her exact words. Ohhhh : tremors of fear running up...
How Private Is Your Email?
Many years ago I was a consultant for a company who decided they wanted to perform a security audit of their computer systems. One of the components of their system that I was requested to check out was email. My client wanted to determine if their...
Internet News Services Explode Online
It seems no matter how much information comes available online, people thirst for more. To illustrate this point, just take a look at all the online news services sprouting up on the web like garden weeds. With the click of a mouse you can...
Microsoft Great Plains Integration with Microsoft Access – overview for developer
Microsoft Business Solutions stakes on Microsoft Great Plains as main Accounting/ERP application for US market. At the same time it seems to be staking on Navision in Europe and has Axapta as high end large corporation market competitor to...
Setting Up Your First Web Hosting Account
The Basics Setting up a web hosting account for the first time can be confusing and frustrating for the novice. This article will guide you through the steps of setting up a new web hosting account for your website. Setting up your web hosting...
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What is Open Source Software and Why is it Used ?
What is Open Source Software?
Open Source Software (OSS) is software that is available under a
special license that allows everyone to access the program code
as well as the executable program. This means that anyone is
able to edit the program code and therefore customise the
software for their own needs.
This ability to access the source code is protected by the
license under which the software is released. There is a great
many Open Source licenses, but they all have one thing in
common, they protect the right of the user of the software to
access and modify it in any way they desire.
This ability to modify applications is in direct contrast to the
Closed Source Software model. In Closed Source only the creator
of the application has access to the source code, and therefore,
only the creator is able to modify the application.
Being able to change the way an Open Source Software application
operates is critical in many business environments. No two
businesses are identical and therefore it is unlikely that any
one piece of software will satisfy the needs of all potential
users. Without the ability to modify their software a company is
restricted in its operations by that software.
While it is true that no two businesses are identical, it is
also true that there are a great many common business practices
that are repeated across organisations. These common practices
can be well served by "standard" software. The remaining
practices, those that are different from competitors are,
typically, the ones that give a business an advantage in the
marketplace.
Since these non-standard practices are key to the organisations
success it is critical that any software solutions adopted by
the company also support these non-standard processes. It is in
this need to adapt software to a companies specific needs that
makes Open Source Software attractive. Since the company has
access to the source, the application can be freely adapted
to
suit the unique requirements of each user.
Who Pays for Open Source Development?
The ability to customise software is critical to allow an
organisation to continue to improve their business processes,
but how does a company afford to pay for such customisations?
One of the side effects of allowing any user access to the
source code is that the cost of acquiring the software in the
first instance is massively reduced. In most cases the source
code is available for no cost. This enables the user to divert
resources normally allocated to pay software license fees into
enhancing the software.
A successful Open Source Software project has a large community
of software developers. Many of these developers work as
independent contractors and can be employed to customise the
software, alternatively, if a company has internal developer
resources, they can leverage those skills to perform the
customisations.
Does it Really Work?
This all sounds fantastic, but does it really work? Are there
Open Source Applications in use in the real world?
Here are a few facts to convince you that it most certainly does
work:
- Around 70% of web sites are served by the Open Source Apache
HTTPD server.
- In a 2002 survey it was found over 31% of UK and nearly 42% of
German companies were using or planning to use OSS.
- In 2001, Debian (an Open Source Operating System), contained
over 55 million lines of code and was estimated to have consumed
over 14,000 person years in development time. That is a
development cost of around 1.89 Billion Dollars (US) yet it is
still available with no license fees.
About the author:
Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides
information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service
Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service
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| Tucows Downloads - Download Freeware and Shareware Software |
| Download freeware, shareware, and demos. Maintains over 45000 software titles that are tested, rated, reviewed and ready to download. |
| www.tucows.com |
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| Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com |
| Download shareware, freeware and Demo software for PC, Mac, Linux, and Handhelds categorized into categories, plus software reviews. |
| www.download.com |
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| Computer software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a ... Application software is often purchased separately from computer hardware. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Shareware.com - Search for shareware programs and free software ... |
| Search for shareware programs from more than a dozen downloadable software directories. |
| www.shareware.com |
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| Jumbo: Free & Shareware MP3 files, Games, Screen Savers & Computer ... |
| Source of free and shareware computer programs and utilities for PC and Mac. Evaluate software and read product reviews. Download games and screen savers. |
| www.jumbo.com |
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| Computer Software in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Browse categories featuring sites devoted to computer software, including shareware and freeware download sites, operating systems, desktop customization, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
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| IEEE Software |
| IEEE Computer Society's magazine covering all aspects of software, including software engineering. |
| www.computer.org |
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| Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software |
| ZDNet's Software Directory is the Web's largest library of software downloads. Covering software for Windows, Mac, and Mobile systems, ZDNet's Software ... |
| downloads.zdnet.com |
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| FSF - The Free Software Foundation |
| Free software is a matter of liberty not price. Think of "free" as in "free speech". |
| www.fsf.org |
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| Apple - Software |
| Software products for your digital life. ... The perfect addition for professional review. QuickTime Broadcaster. Encoding software for live events. ... |
| www.apple.com |
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| Open Directory - Computers: Software |
| In Partnership with AOL Search. about dmoz | report abuse/spam | help. the entire directory, only in Computers/Software. Top: Computers: Software (38471) ... |
| dmoz.org |
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| freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net |
| About: The Web browser is probably the most frequently used software today, ... Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression ... |
| freshmeat.net |
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| Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) |
| Listing of the GNU software packages. |
| www.gnu.org |
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| Sun Software |
| Get enterprise-class software--Solaris 10 OS, the Java Enterprise System, ... Sun Java StorageTek Software reduces cost and complexity with a single, ... |
| www.sun.com |
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| Internet Real Estate.com -- owns and operates a portfolio of the ... |
| SOFTWARE.COM · SWEEPSTAKES.COM · PHONE.COM PODCAST.COM ... Software.com | Sweepstakes.com | Phone.com | Podcast.com | Shop.com | Safety.com ... |
| www.internetrealestate.com |
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| Joel on Software |
| A weblog by Joel Spolsky, a programmer working in New York City, about software and software companies. |
| www.joelonsoftware.com |
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| Amazon.com Software: Computer & video games, business, accounting ... |
| Online shopping for computer & video games, business & office productivity software, software from Microsoft, Apple, Adobe & more; accounting, antivirus, ... |
| www.amazon.com |
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| IBM Software - Home Page |
| IBM home page for all of its software products, including Lotus and Tivoli, with keyword search, category browse and AZ product names. |
| www.ibm.com |
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| Opera web browser: Homepage |
| Copyright © 2006 Opera Software ASA. All rights reserved. Skip navigation. Opera Software ... Copyright Opera Software ASA . All rights reserved. ... |
| www.opera.com |
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| Google Directory - Computers > Software |
| Search only in Software Search the Web ... Software Categorized by Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ... |
| www.google.com |
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