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What Is Open Source?

Open source is defined as computer software which is made freely redistributable by its creators. Open Source is a bit like public transit, in a way: we all pay a small proportion of our taxes into paying for cheap, convenient transportation for the benefit of all. (It's no accident we're using subway-related artwork on our site.)

What Are the Benefits of Open Source?

Like public transportation at the turn of the century, most software was closed-source through the late 1970's and early 1980's. Individuals such as Richard Stallman, who founded the Free Software Foundation, realized that many benefits are to be had from using open source software, just like there are substantial benefits to having publicly owned transportation companies. Some of the advantages of open source software over closed source software are:

No licencing fees
No limit on number of installations of the software
Open standards
Excellent quality
Rapid fixes to security vulnerabilities and other software defects
Development driven by user needs as opposed to marketing hype
Ease of customization on a per-business level
Freedom from vendor lock-in
Supportable by thousands of companies all over the world

Open Source in the World

Many companies worldwide are using open-source software in mission critical systems. Some examples of Open Source in use:

Apache HTTPD is the world's most popular web server, running two-thirds of the websites on the Internet (according to NetCraft).
Linux is possibly the world's best-known open-source operating system, and is relied upon by many of the world's largest companies with Internet presences, including Akamai, Amazon.Com, and Google. Other open-source operating systems in wide use are FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
Mozilla and its offshoots like FireFox are perhaps the most popular browsers after Internet Explorer.
MySQL and PostgreSQL are enterprise-quality relational database management systems which rival all but the very largest commercial database systems.
BIND, the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, serves more DNS zones than any other DNS server on the Internet.
Sendmail and Postfix are the programs responsible for delivering the majority of the mail transported over the Internet today.

The list goes on. All this software, and other software built on top of this software, is free for the taking, ready for you to use in your business.

OpenTrend's Commitment to Open Source

OpenTrend Solutions Ltd. is committed to implementing open source solutions where possible. While we recognize that even open source products have some shortcomings and are not practical in all situations, we find that the majority of technical problems can be solved by using open source software.

To demonstrate our commitment to open source, we not only use exclusively open source software in all aspects of our business, from customer relationship management to accounting, but we donate 2% of our profits to open source projects worldwide.

Find Out More

The Open Source Initiative certifies software as OSI-compliant and acts as an advocacy body for open source. You can find answers to your frequently-asked questions on this webpage.

Copyright (C) 2003-2006 OpenTrend Solutions, Ltd. All rights reserved.