Open Source

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After reading this article it got me thinking: are there any disadvantages of open source software?

To start off, here is a brief introduction to open source software in the form of comparison between Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. One of the most popular and widely used open source applications is the Mozilla Firefox web browser. It is a direct competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Both of them can parse web pages equally well. Both have lots of features. The major difference is how they are developed. IE is a product of Microsoft which is a private, for profit, firm. Microsoft hires developers and pays them money to create, maintain and update their product. On the other hand Firefox is a piece of software that is developed under open source license. This means that anyone can get the source code for the browser. Although the non profit Mozilla Foundation guides the central vision of this product, there are thousands of volunteers who contribute to its development and testing. They are not compensated monetarily and provide their labor completely for free.

Firefox is just one example out of literary thousands of open source projects many of which rival their for-profit counter parts. So the question is there any draw backs to these?

From my personal experience I found that, in general, open source software is less user friendly than the stuff you pay for. This could be because this software is designed with more savvy users in mind. Developers are not concerned about the less knowledgeable users and assume that if you were able to find open source tool, you should be comfortable with a more advanced interface.

Another problem that I often run into is that it takes more time to setup and get the open source tools working. Perhaps this is because the makers spend their development resources on the product it self rather than the installers and wrappers.

Open source software is a great resource to individuals and groups. Often these tools are better than their costly counter parts. Despite some of the problems I have had with some of open source tools, I believe they are a great service to the internet community and I thank all open source developers.