Open Source: Pros and Cons of Free Software

Posted by Jim Van on July 22, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business | Read the First Comment

Lots has been written about the Open Source ‘revolution’ (I hate the ‘r’ word, but that’s what it’s called..). It’s true that open source software has placed free and low-cost software within the reaches of the typical microbusiness, resulting many times in critical savings for typically budget-conscious companies. If LibreOffice does as good a job as MS Office, why spend the nearly $300 for a pro license, or $180 for a Small-Business edition? And SugarCRM has an excellent community edition that is great for smaller businesses and is free. So, what’s the catch?

We’re firm believers in open source software, and have been for years. But we’re IT people, and typically navigate the craters with regards to support, difficulties in installation and use, like a dancer on a stage. But how about the typical small business user?

There are a handful of open source software programs that install easily, and are very intuitive (easy to use). Then there are the others. It’s not to say that they’re bad — they generally require a bit more time to set up, and have more of a learning curve associated with them.

Take blogging, for example. WordPress is far and away the leading software package for creating and administering a blog. It has more than 10 million users worldwide and is growing every hour. There is no shortage of hosting services, including Logicomm, that offer WordPress as a free option to client web hosting plans. With the right provider, setting up a basic WordPress-powered blog can be done in a matter of about an hour. But what if you want to customize your blog?

That’s where businesses have options. The first option is to view support groups and read the documentation that comes with WordPress. However, many businesses simply don’t have the staff to whom the research and acquisition of design knowledge can be delegated. Often, the business owner ends up with the role, further distracting him or her from the core business. The next option is outsourcing the work. On a project (per-hour) basis, this can quickly become costly, eating up any potential savings in using an open source program.

Lastly, one can subscribe to a service, in this case, a hosting service, where support is included, or can be added on as a low-cost option. Hosting firms that offer this service are able to discount their fees due to the law of large numbers. After all, if a service provider is providing the same type of support to a dozen companies, the costs can be spread out over a dozen clients, rather than one company bearing the full burden.

Similar plans are available on a subscription basis for many of the more popular open source applications, and chances are that your IT service provider either has or is developing a service that will cover many of the applications that might be of interest to your company.

Tips for selecting open source software

Get your software from a reliable source. SourceForge.net, Download.com and TuCows.com are great sites. Note: download.com and tucows feature shareware (paid) and freeware.
Look at the popularity of the software. Compare it to the length of time that the software has been posted. If a program has been downloaded 16,000 times over a year span, it’s probably a good bet that it’s easy to use and has a solid support community. But the same hold true with an app that’s been downloaded only 250 times, but has only been posted for a month or so. We tend to use the software that’s been around longer.
Are their comments? Many apps have comment sections, and some are good, while others, even for popular apps, can be rather useless. Balance that with activity in the forums section.
Is the app easy to install? If you can’t figure out how to install it, chances are you won’t be able to figure out how to use many features. Choose something that works for you right out of the box, rather than an app that requires a steep learning curve.

A good site for comparison of the PRO’s and CON’s of using open source software can be found at NetC.org‘s open options page, which also has links so that users can dig deeper into issues that might concern them. It’s a neutral and fairly good piece, and we recommend reading it to any
Some other links:

Source Forge – a clearing house of over 300,000 (last count) open source projects, some quite mature, some abandoned for a couple of years and some, well…
Download.com – A mix of shareware and freeware-licensed software. Excellent source, but be careful you’re not purchasing something.
Tucows – Again, a mix of shareware and freeware-licensed software. Some different files than found on download.com.
Libre Office – Excellent alternative to MS Office, although it’s missing some features available in MS Office. LibreOffice has been around for a couple of decades, is well-documented and easy to install and use. Lots of forum-based support, as well as any number of IT firms and support services who can assist as well.
SugarCRM – One of the best examples of open source at work: there’s a free community edition that has fewer features and options than the paid version, but is still an excellent CRM application. The paid version is comparable to any of the best ones out there, and is available with a professional services plan.

In a future post, we’ll discuss SaaS, Software as a Service, which are applications that are distributed online via a browser, and are making a huge difference. Some are free, almost all are low-cost, perfect for microbusiness!

paul f. said,

Our five-person firm stopped using MS Office a couple of years ago, installed Open Office (openoffice.org), and have been very pleased with it.

We’ve never used the support on either the paid or free office editions, so we can’t speak to the support, or lack of, but the open source software seems to work great.