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When downloading software I often see open source alternatives. Many of these look quite similar but never quite the same. I continue to buy the paid version. Recently, I started to wonder if the open source versions may be better.
My question:
Benefits of open source are numerous. The most often quoted are:
There are also some less recognised:
Yes, they do exist. Look at OpenSSL: Heartbleed, Poodle, Freak... If your open source software is popular, then the attackers can see the bugs in your code too and exploit them. And a lot of people use it, so a lot of people to defraud.
It also takes up time: unless you have a dedicated team of maintainers and helpers, you need to manually review patches and pull requests, and check that your license is being followed. That can take up a lot of time.
Sure they are!
Disadvantages:
My suggestion is: Instead of paying $200 for a proprietary software, try using open source software and donating $100 to the developers. It will benefit you, its developers and probably everyone else using the product.
Look at this from a business's point of view, rather than a software developer.
Say I run a small business, perhaps a lawyer's office. No one in the company writes software. But my company needs a lot of software to make money. IT costs are a major issue for smaller companies, consider the basic infrastructure
Not that long ago, a new business had only one realistic option. The OS came with the computer, and everything else followed. But today there are widely used open source alternatives for everything in the list above. Even more interestingly, if it's a Linux based solution, you can often get away with lower spec'd (i.e. cheaper) PC's.
So going with Linux, Open/Libre Office, and other open source packages will save my company a lot of money each year. Possibly enough to hire another employee to help generate revenue. That's more jobs and more businesses feeding the economy. That may mean more clients and more revenue.
The biggest downside, of course, is the lack of a one-stop-support organization ... and anyone who's ever listened to the hold-jockeys at a certain company for hours can talk to you about just how well that works out.
The other is simply the difficulty for a non-savvy user to know which software to use, or even what exists.
But these actually open up scope for a new business: consultants who, for a fee, help set up the office for new businesses. They identify the right software, and set it up. They might even provide the ongoing support.
On a much smaller scale, my entire household is moving away from Windows to Macs as the old laptops die. I used to have multiple licenses of Office etc. Today, the only software I regularly buy is Turbotax once a year and every few years I update Quicken.
Apple doesn't even charge for major OS upgrades any more. And a Mac is close enough to Linux for me to be able to do full OS development on it with all my favorite libraries and tools.
My development desktop at work runs Ubuntu and there isn't a single piece of paid-for software on it. My employer has hundreds of these.
Another benefit that's not been mentioned so far is covered in this ServerFault question and my answer thereto - you don't have to worry about licensing audits. This may seem trivial, but if you read some of the other answers you'll start to see how time-consuming that can be, especially in an enterprise of any size - often a full-time person is required just to track all the intricacies of what is licensed and where, to prevent completely-accidental but potentially-expensive violations.
If you, as I do, eschew all proprietary software, dealing with audits and license renewal takes about 30 seconds a year.
The benefits for users include:
