Open source environment provides the competitive advantage over closed source environment. There are very few companies who do not use any type of open source software in their infrastructure. This revolutionary model of software development has been embraced by many of the largest companies in the software industry. Open source development is a better way of building software, one reason being that more people are involved in solving the problems. Although open source is a better way of developing software than close source, there are some guidelines for creating good open source softwares. "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" has listed about 19 guidelines for doing just that. One among them,"Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)" seems noteworthy.
It is certainly true that what only one person thinks is good (closed source development) is likely to be inferior to what a lot of people think is good (open source development).
ReplyDeleteOpen source better? Arguably, yet for some reason commercial, closed source software still dominates a majority of the markets (at least at a glance). Is open source for software development the metrics system for the US? Obviously better, but lacking the kinetic energy to oust the momentum of the imperial system? Or maybe open source *can* produce better programs, but won't for everything?
ReplyDeleteOpen Source certainly has it's benefits. I am personally a huge supporter of Open Source software, but to say it's a better development model is taking it a little far. The fact of the matter is that a majority of open source projects are actually pretty bad. It's really a power function, where there are a few number of AMAZING open source projects (like Linux or git or GIMP), where most are not as great.
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