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Does FOSS serve better over proprietary software?

FOSS - Free and Open Source Software

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Question added by Mohammed Rinaz MBCS , IT Project Manager , Microsoft Partner
Date Posted: 2013/04/18
Zaid Rabab'a
by Zaid Rabab'a , Software Development Team Leader , Al-Safa Co. Ltd.

Depends on what projects you need to devlop with my case i think open source better its provides you wil almost every thing have a huge commuinity where you can find all issues & solutions

Muhammad Majid Saleem
by Muhammad Majid Saleem , Senior PHP Developer / Project Manager , SwaamTech

I believe - both cases have their importance. Sometimes FOSS is better and sometimes proprietary software is better. It depends on your software need. Suppose - you want to have a CRM software. You should go for a Free and Open Source Software when SugarCRM and vTiger CRM already there. - It will save your Development Cost. - It will save your Development Time. - It will save your Quality Assurance Cost. - it will save your Quality Assurance Time. - You will have a bug free CRM software. - If you find any bug, there is a team to fix it. You don't have to spend even a single penny to fix it. - You will have software for use with in no time. - You have to pay cost almost zero as compare to proprietary software development cost. - You will have rights to modify the script. - There are many other benefits. On other hand, if you want to have an inventory system then it would be better to develop it as a proprietary software. OR you have an idea and you should develop it as a proprietary software to sell or something. So both cases are there and it depends on the situation that: - What you need and When you need?

Actually none is free !! If you choose to not spend money for closed proprietary software, you will spend pretty good time in adopting opensource and time is money :), or hire a consultant/integrator to do the job. by the way you may check this survey on opensource: http://www.slideshare.net/blackducksoftware/the-2013-future-of-open-source-survey-results

Maroun Baydoun
by Maroun Baydoun , Freelance developer , self-employed

Depends on the usage context, but in most cases FOSS has many advantages over proprietary software. One of the major advantages is the code quality and security since there are hundreds or thousands of developers all over the world and coming from different backgrounds checking and optimising the code. It also has to be noted that a lot of proprietary software include a lot of FOSS components.

Mohamed Mansour
by Mohamed Mansour , Java Developer , Arrow Electronics

I'm sure that FOSS does some nice things, but it does have some problems: FOSS usually has dozens of programs, each of which only do one task, bundled together. This means that you have different settings, interfaces, etc. for doing related things. It tends to be pretty rough-n-ready. Editing config files, using the command line, etc. are accepted as normal. It lets anyone split off a new version if they wish. This is why there can be dozens and dozens of versions of a program, none of them fully compatible with each other, all of them "current". Also it tends to fall into two camps: Never throwing out an old feature and never improving certain core aspects because they're just "how it's done" or throwing out compatibility every year for new, largely untested, features. Some actual balance would be nice. And writers love open standards. They just hate using anyone else's. Every piece of FOSS software has its own, incompatible, standards for how to do stuff. Getting them to talk to each other can be...fun. Say what you will about Microsoft Office, at least it's standardized document formats. Now, obviously, not all FOSS software has all, or even any, of these problems, but they do tend to plague it. regards

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