Open Source Software
Open Source Software is revolutionising businesses of all sizes every day. Companies are reducing costs, tailoring their technology tools and avoiding vendor lock in by challenging the traditional options for desktop, application and server software.
What is open source?
Unlike most traditional software, open source software can generally be used without limitation, copied at will and even modified. Typically the only restrictions being that attributions must be made to the original author and that any changes are made available. This approach has created a vibrant “open culture” of developers, firms and users all contributing and improving the software.
Open source software is used within the largest corporations, government and academic institutions and most governments are advocating its use where possible. Because the source code is open to scrutiny bugs are fixed quickly; open source software has developed a reputation for security and reliability.
Open source is everywhere
We often surprise our customers by showing them how much open source software they are already using, without them knowing it. The Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email client, 7zip archiver and OpenOffice are all finding there way onto desktops and millions of websites are hosted on linux servers running the Apache webserver and Mysql database. Nowdays, most “smart” consumer electronics devices use open source technologies. The free operating system Linux is now 20 years old and as the short video below shows, has been a huge success.
[youtube_video id="5ocq6_3-nEw"]
Open Source is here to stay and even the biggest software firms are involved in developing software and supporting the open source community.
Practicing what we preach
We use open source software where it makes sense to do so and the majority of our applications and systems are based on open source software.
- Desktops: Ubuntu linux
- Office applications: LibreOffice
- Email & Web : Thunderbird & Firefox
- Shared calendaring: Davical
- Customer Relationship Management: vTiger CRM
- Company websites and intranet: Apache & WordPress
- Email servers: Postfix and Dovecot IMAP, Roundcube webmail
- Windows file and print services: Samba
- System and Application monitoring: Zabbix & Splunk logfile analysis
- Automated Windows XP deployments: Unattended
- Problem ticketing: RT
Future plans:
- Directory services: LDAP
- Remote office server: Zentyal
- VOIP telephony: Trixbox
As you can see, there are generally open source alternatives to most applications. Take a look at the Open Source Alternatives website for more.
Talk to us about how we can help you take the first steps to reducing software costs and improving reliability of your business systems.