Have you ever listened to every good thing in life has to be paid? Well, that’s not always true, especially when we talk about software. This world gives us the opportunity to get open source software that is available for everyone. And that's not all. It doesn’t mean less quality or usability comparing it with those we pay. From now on we will compare Open Source Software vs. Proprietary Software to know the advantages and disadvantages, examples, and how can you use them in the best way.
In a few words, it is a kind of software that is available for everyone in the world to use, and it has the peculiarity that its code is open to developers. Surely you will ask, why does this happen? This makes possible that developers can change the code until it works the best for a specific project they are participating.
Engineers, customers, even developers love this kind of software because they can save effort, work, and time using something that it was already developed. And as if this wasn’t enough, they can personalize this main code and adapt it to their necessities. Sounds good, right?
That’s not all! Open Source Software also can be shared with others. In a few words, once you have access, you can make whatever you want.
We already know what means Software Open Source, but what happens with free software?
Although it seems to be the same, they aren’t. Open Source Software, how we saw, it is a software you can modify it and adapt it to your necessities. While free software, commonly, cannot be transformed. You can use it for free but only with qualities with it was created. It is not flexible at all.
And what you think? Software for commercial use also can be free software. Why? Well, if you respect all these points, you can charge a rate for distribution.
The principle here is to promote the collaboration inside a community to generate mutual benefits.
Not all software open source is necessarily free. And free software can be also open source at the same time.
On the other hand, we have proprietary software, another kind of software that you have to bough if you want to use it.
This software belongs to someone else, but what does it mean? The code is closed, it is copyrighted, its use is limited at some point, especially when it is referred to distribution or modification.
Proprietary software also is called commercial software or closed-source software inattention to one of its most important characteristics.
This software also is really good and unique and sometimes, they can be modified within creators limits.
Some of the most important software programs that revolutionized the world years ago were in this category.
We met enough information about free and open source software. Now it is the moment to learn at least some of the most important characteristic of proprietary software:
It is a content management system that was born 17 years ago to support writers lovers. Before, it was though like a blog platform, but it was growing, and now it is a CMS focus on websites creation. Nowadays it is one of the most important platform dedicated to this, especially for the creation of commercial websites.
You can use Wordpress here.
It is a Javascript library that was though to create user interfaces. It is maintained by Facebook and a developers community. From 2013 it is online and around 1000 developers it has used.
Read More at React.
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This is a software office package that includes a text editor, spreadsheets, and every program you need to use at your office. It is related to Microsoft Office, but open source.
Obtain it clicking here: Free Office
It is an antivirus software and security suite that was launched in 1990. From there, they have been on the top of the security software market.
Microsoft Windows is a group of several graphical operating system families, all of which are developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. They are a family of software distributions for PC, smartphone, servers and embedded systems, developed and sold by Microsoft and available for multiple architectures, such as x86, x86-64 and ARM. Source
MacOS is a series of graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac family of computers. Within the market of desktop, laptop, and home computers, and by web usage, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows. Source
How its name said, it is a suite with different tools which are created for printed publication, video and photos production and mobile devices.
Here you can find out more information about this suite
If we have to select a winner at the software open source vs proprietary software we say that there aren’t any winner. All of them give us good and bad things; each one is useful.
Everything will depend on your objectives and necessities. Do you agree with us?