Archive for September, 2007

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

Down to Basics - Part I: Free, Open Source or Commercial?

Ever been in a situation where your business decision comes to a crossroad in the topic, in which the answer is not always straightforward? Before I go into a deep discussion, I’ll explain what each terminology, at least, means for the sake of this discussion.

Freeware: This category of software in fact encompasses Open Source software - more distinctively, free software are otherwise considered which its source code is proprietary to the owner. E.g. MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player are both free but their source codes are not revealed to the public to work upon and developed further. The companies who developed these softwares or open source softwares operate on a different business model compared to commercial software companies - through provision of paid technical services, training of usage, using free software as a mean of branding and advertisement, etc.

Open Source: Open Source is a topic close to my heart; Mozilla, Filezilla(FTP Client and Server), Gimpshop (Image Editor), MySQL (Database Server), Tomcat (Web Server Test Environment), Asterisk (Phone System Program) and of course Wordpress all reside in my servers or laptop. By making source codes public, OS softwares leverage on the community spirit to produce improvements and plugins. One of the best known OS software is of course Linux, which is by default an operating system - but it has since evolved into a necessity for server technologies. Many times, these can be software which were originally commercial - such as Eclipse, a Java IDE.

Commercial: The name is self-explanatory; some examples are Photoshop and Microsoft Office, which can cost between USD$100 to USD$1k depending on usage.

Most often, many essential types of applications come in all 3 forms, or at least 2 forms. For e.g. Pixia (Free), Gimpshop (OS) and Photoshop (Commercial) is one combination, while another one would be OpenOffice (OS) and Microsoft Office (Commercial), That said, the following factors should assist in determining your choice.

1) Needs & Requirements: Is the free or open-source version fulfilling your needs? In many cases, free softwares includes important features of commercial softwares without the bells and whistle, and suffice the needs. E.g. OpenOffice has been adopted by many major corporations and organisations, like Singapore Armed Forces. OpenOffice was deemed sufficient for them; Microsoft Outlook, on the other hand supports Exchange Server, something which not many clients such as the popular Thunderbird has.

2) Costs: Assuming the software does not cost a single cent but brought you slightly less benefits, you have to make the call for the balance; is the premium you are paying worth the extra incentives? Are there other solutions out which are free as well that can complement the free solution? Is the extra effort and time worth it, or would you rather pay

3) Support: Closely linked to Needs & Requirements, there was a report released from Microsoft some time ago on how companies using Linux distributions had ended up spending much more than they would if they had continued with Windows OS. Of course, it may/may not be true, but the ultimate point is, if support was an important component as part of your business. Would you rather “self support” / pay for a technical personnel full time to resolve any issues? How often do you anticipate problems using their software.

However, always remember that paying heavily for a product does not always guarantee world class support. I have experienced some of the worst support paying USD$10,000 a year, while the best support paying for nothing (e.g. Open Source software). How did this happen? The logic is simple - Free softwares have more users, and thus, a larger community of fellow users who may have experienced the same problems and solved via “diy”. For open source software, plus the large community of users and developers altogether, there you go - you have thousands of developers working on plugins and answering your doubts on forums - for free

4) Usability and Adaptability: By now, we all know some of the best applications in the world are free; Mozilla, MySQL, Joomla (Award Winning CMS). Similarly, for some software, there are simply no alternatives - Gimp is notoriously known to be difficult for beginners who were used to Photoshop; Likewise, when I tried my hands on KompoZer (formally nVu), a web authoring WYSIWYG tool, a competitor to Dreamweaver, I had the hardest time relearning the basics and all the intuitively simple and useful functions in Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has been far too developed and deservingly gets my pennies. *ps* KompoZer just released a latest update in September 07 while I was evaluating an 05 version.

5) Compatibility: What I meant by this is, in its most basic form for e.g. , assuming you run PHP applications - why then, would you use M$ SQL when MySQL often goes hand in hand with PHP - just see popular applications such as phpMyAdmin and WAMP(Windows)/LAMP(Linux) - which combines PHP and MySQL. Most of all, if you decided to save cost on server OS and opted for Linux, do not expect to use ASP later on. Likewise, are you in sync with your major business partners and your system compatible with theirs, so in order to smoothly integrate with theirs?

In a nutshell, the answer is, as always, “it depends“. Run through Pt 1 to Pt 5, before you make a judgment, as your business needs may demand different answers at different times. Personally, I am a strong advocate for Free or Open-Source applications - I have volumes of pleasantly surprising experiences with many of them - more importantly, my own company is a SME where savings go a long way, and where customizing Open Source applications is a huge revenue generator; Before Internet, it probably is not wise to use unsupported software in your enterprise; However, the advent of Internet meant previously isolated users are now able to get together and help each other out, and to “sanctions” or volunteer (Open Source Movements) for improvements of the applications.

Of course, there will always be the argument that without funds, there will be no R&D and eventually commercial companies cannot improve their products. This however has not surfaced; Oracle and MS SQL have instead been ruffled with competitions and economist will tell you competition leads to better standards.Wikipedia has shown how potent a single community can be - in fact, that they are intending to compete with Google with a similar concept -
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/23/wikipedia-to-launch-searchengine-exclusive-screenshot/

It often fascinates me how many SMEs have conveniently overlooked free and open source solutions without considering all of the 5 factors I have listed. Most of my clients are often ready-to-pay for anything but consulting and technical support. Firm believers of commercial software should instead look to the power of communities in the open source world as the future of IT.