Friday, July 30, 2010

Open Source Confusion

 

I have dabbled with open source for many years, both as a user and briefly as a developer. I personally like the idea that if there is a problem with the software I can fix it myself rather than having to wait for the vendor to fix it. I have therefore read with interest some interesting thoughts about open source, in particular in two recent forums.

The first area is in connection with the Department of Health’s decision not to continue its enterprise wide agreement with Microsoft. This has triggered some discussion about open source. At the same time but coincidentally the latest version of IT Now concentrates on open source.

What I have found interesting reading these articles and posts is the amount of confusion and misinformation about open source. Here I add my own thoughts to these discussions.

  1. Open Source is cheaper than closed source

    This is a classic misconception. While it is often the case that open source does not have the same initial license cost as closed source solutions, proper comparison of the costs of the two requires analysis of the respective total cost of ownership. For example in a typical corporate situation key infrastructure components require support in line with the organisation’s business needs. In a closed source situation the software vendor typically provides this as part of their maintenance agreement; in an open source situation, since there often isn’t a software vendor as such, a 3rd party organisation must provide this support. The organisation procuring such an open source solution must satisfy itself that any such support vendor has sufficient competence and expertise in the software to be able to support it. A good example of such an organisation is Red Hat who provide support for Red Hat Linux (amongst many open source products). The key point here is that lifetime costs including training, support, upgrades etc must be included in the TCO calculation.

  2. Open Source is less secure than closed source

    This is somewhat more contentious. I have previously heard this used as an argument (by non-technical people) for not using open source. I would argue that open source solutions are more secure than closed source since the opportunity for unlimited peer review of open source code significantly reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities persisting, compared to closed source solutions which effectively rely on security by obfuscation. The open source approach is similar to the practice in the cryptographic community of peer review of crypto algorithms.

  3. Open Source is easier to modify than closed source

    It is self evidently true that in principle anyone can modify open source code. However in practice modifying open source code is not for the faint hearted – these are often complex and sophisticated enterprise applications. It’s fine for Yahoo and Google engineers to modify open source software since their businesses are based on software. However for organisations for whom software is an enabler rather than a core business asset, such sophisticated software development will not typically be a core competence. For such organisations self modification of code is not really an option unless there is a desire to diversify the business into software development! For example this means that most adopters of Open Office are unlikely to modify the code themselves.

  4. Open Source is supported by dedicated individuals who freely give up their time

    There are undoubtedly many dedicated developers who give up their own time to write or modify code for open source applications. However there are also many open source products for which major chunks are developed by large organisations with salaried employees. Red Hat is an example of this. Similarly Yahoo contributes to many open source projects based on the work that their salaried engineers perform. Daniel Pink’s idealised view of open source as being the output of individuals motivated not by normal corporate rewards isn’t totally accurate.