Open Source and Proprietary Software: The Search for a Profitable Middle-Ground

Author(s):  
Chris Nosko ◽  
Daniel D. Garcia-Swartz ◽  
Anne Layne-Farrar
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
Mahlatse Shekgola ◽  
Jan Maluleka ◽  
Antonio Rodrigues

The South African cabinet adopted policy recommendations from the Government Information Technology Officer's Council pertaining to Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). Even though the South African Cabinet has shown support for the use of FOSS through the enactment of a policy, the adoption of open source software in electronic records management seems to be slow. Proprietary software continues to be adopted and used by most public institutions, including local and provincial municipalities in South Africa. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate factors that may influence the adoption and use of FOSS for electronic records management by South African municipalities. The study adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data from 10 purposively selected municipalities in Gauteng. Data were analysed and presented thematically to address the research question. The findings of this study suggest that municipalities in Gauteng are not adopting FOSS for electronic records management as expected. This study established that top management support, reliability, affordability of the software, inadequate capability, contracts with proprietary software providers, organisational culture and organisational support are some of the factors that contributed to the low uptake when it comes to the adoption of Free and Open-Source Software by the municipalities.


Author(s):  
Abubakar Diwani Bakar ◽  
Abu Bakar Md. Sultan ◽  
Hazura Zulzalil ◽  
Jamilah Din

The African continent has long benefited from adopting OSS in its private and public organizations that have changed their way of development, the use and how to acquire proprietary software. This frequency of adaptation does not appear to be in balance with the contribution to the OSS community. Using views from experienced software practitioners working in different organizations across two African countries it has been observed that neglected infrastructure, a wide availability of proprietary software and misconceptions of a clear meaning of Open Source Software across Africa have been an obstacle towards the participation in the OSS technology in the global network.


Author(s):  
Brian Still

This chapter serves as an introductory overview of Open Source Software (OSS) and the Open Source movement. It is geared primarily for technical communicators. To provide a thorough overview, this chapter defines OSS, explains how OSS works in comparison to proprietary software, looks at the history of OSS, and examines OSS licensing types, applications in business, and overall strengths and weaknesses when compared to proprietary software. Lastly, it evaluates the practical potential of OSS as well as emerging and future trends relating to it. From this general but thorough overview the intended audience of technical communicators will gain the solid understanding needed to work successfully in an academic or professional environment where OSS continues to grow in popularity, spurring more organizations to rely on it or the Open Source ideas that have inspired and continue to drive its creation and growth.


Author(s):  
Chris Moya

Programming a rich Internet application (RIA) in any Web environment is the goal of Laszlo Systems. The open source software, OpenLaszlo Presentation Server, allows a user to run, on any device, applications that blend to perfection a user-centered design. It facilitates development from the basic levels such as creating forms, menus and other components for a website, up to high-level tasks like focusing on the attention of the user, to easily create, for example, an e-commerce website, a full management back office or a trip booking site, all this using animations comparable to those created with proprietary software.


First Monday ◽  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Perens

The following commentary is part of First Monday's Special Issue #2: Open Source. Open Source developers have, perhaps without conscious intent, created a new and surprisingly successful economic paradigm for the production of software. Examining that paradigm can answer a number of important questions. It's not immediately obvious how Open Source [1] works economically. Probably the worst consequence of this lack of understanding is that many people don't understand how Open Source could be economically sustainable, and some may even feel that its potential negative effect upon the proprietary software industry is an overall economic detriment. Fortunately, if you look more deeply into the economic function of software in general, it's easy to establish that Open Source is both sustainable and of tremendous benefit to the overall economy. Open Source can be explained entirely within the context of conventional open-market economics. Indeed, it turns out that it has much stronger ties to the phenomenon of capitalism than you may have appreciated.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 420-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kemp ◽  
Caspar Gibbons

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (43) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Daiva Šiškevičiūtė ◽  
Eugenijus Valavičius

Atvirųjų standartų plitimas kelia naujus reikalavimus informacinių technologijų ir kitų kompiuterinių dalykų dėstytojams. Straipsnyje analizuojamos problemos, iškylančios ruošiantis dėstyti informacinių technologijų kursą, kai kompiuterių taikymo veiksmai iliustruojami atvirosiomis programomis. Taip pat pateikiama studentų pasirengimo priimti tokį kursą analizė – dviejų etapų nuomonės pokyčių tyrimo rezultatai, jų palyginimas su kitais tyrimais, vienų mokslo metų dėstymo patirtis.Teaching of information technology and open source programsDaiva Šiškevičiūtė, Eugenijus Valavičius SummaryThe movement towards open standards on all levels of social life/the life of society puts up new challenges for teachers of Information Technologies and other computer-related disciplines. Vilnius Business College prepared a plan of particular switchover from proprietary software in computer laboratories to open source software. This paper analyses the results of a two-stage survey of students’ opinion about open source software and problems that can occur when using such programs.The changes in students opinion are discussed and results of our surveys are compared with the results of an analogous survey in Lithuanian schools.


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