Adopting a new business model can be a strategic, game-changing play in any industry. But knowing when and how to try something new can be tricky, particularly in the constantly evolving software industry. The open source movement is still the most demanded and favored from the past 30 years and still has its die-hard supporters. Meanwhile, other firms try to maximize profits by keeping a tight, proprietary hold on all intellectual property. Increasingly, however, software companies are evaluating the best of both worlds by creating products that use a combination of Open Source and proprietary software code. Closed source software usually is developed and maintained by a team who produces their product in a compiled executable state, which is what the market is allowed access to. Microsoft, the owner and developer of Windows and Microsoft Office, along with other major software companies, have long been proponents of this business model. The OSS model allows for able users to view and modify a product's source code. Common advantages cited by proponents for having such a structure are expressed in terms of trust, acceptance, teamwork and quality.
On the one hand, there is the belief that proprietary software is famous for stability and easy deployment; and the biggest organizations run after them as they are not only trusted but also believed to bring in improvements in the functioning of business. On the other hand, there is another set of organizations that deem Open Source software will be the next big thing in terms of providing the same software solutions as offered by the proprietary ones, but for free or very low costs. The economic efficiency aspect is the key in the success of open source software, especially for platforms. Open source licensing scheme and open development models enable collaboration between self-interested entities, which can combine forces as they need within a clear legal framework, and such without a complex initial collaboration setup and big contracts negotiation. And as platforms are inherently meant to serve a wide range of needs and people, open source reveals its superior nature: it enables great collaboration between actors using the platform, hence aggregating their work to advance the platform.
Any software is composed of two modules—the core, or base, and the extensions. There's an asymmetry between these two because the base can be used without the extensions, but to use the extensions you need the base. So, there are a few overall business models that currently exist in the software industry: proprietary, OS, or a mixed model, opening either the extensions or the base. In the software industry, the open extensions model is sometimes referred to as 'open edge'. Though open source comes freely to firms, there are several employee users who aren’t too impressed and show resistance to them and consider licensed software more easy to use. Open source software quite often needs to be customized and for this there is the requirement of an expert who possesses open source skills. Applicants/Personnel with open source technology skill sets tend to demand higher pay. Apart from this, there are also factors like trust, ease of use, expert business solutions, stability, after-sale services that make proprietary software solutions even now the most sought after software products. The source code of the software is usually given away, and pre-compiled binary software frequently accompanies it for convenience. As a result, the source code can be freely modified. However, there can be some license-based restrictions on re-distributing the software. Generally, software can be modified and re-distributed for free, as long as credit is given to the original manufacturer of the software. In addition, FOSS can generally be sold commercially, as long as the source-code is provided. There are a wide variety of free software licenses that define how a program can be used, modified, and sold commercially.
All said and done, it is essential for us to know that though the battle between open source and proprietary software will be on for years to come, the fact remains that each of them have their own target market and these targeted business enterprises are quite happy with whichever software offering they have bought. It often depends on the comfort level of organizations as to which solution is more profitable for them after considering all factors for example cost, customization features, user-friendliness, consistency, and most importantly provision of superlative business solutions. At Rigel Networks' we offer unmatched competence in designing and development of high performance and scalable web applications using Open Source Technologies, and our Core expertise lies into custom application development using Microsoft technologies.
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