The time of Open Source is coming. Even the New York Stock Exchange adopted open source solutions and whole Russian government IT infrastructure will migrate toward Linux-based OS until 2015. Free software is not the sign of being in a bad financial position. It is more about flexibility, innovation and being ready to respond quickly to the evolving business environment.
More and more companies – big and small, private or public, turn to open source software every day to support their goals and their customers needs. With open source solution they can deliver a great experience to their customers and it’s free.
Having no software license fee is not the only advantage of open source software.
Members of open source communities share the code, create updates and upgrades for existing software and create new plug-ins or solutions. With this approach each company, organization or single user can develop chosen software that will meet their unique technical requirements, on their own schedule. There is no companies to wait on, no engineering road maps to lobby for, you can have what you need.
If the company needs a website or website platform with a blog, gallery, e-shop, e-learning or file share platform, open source software can be used and developed, changed and tested to meet unique requirements. Each user can install as many modules, plugins and add-ons as needed in the project.
If we take Drupal open source content management platform, powering millions of websites and applications, as an example of the power of open source we will learn that it’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world. With Drupal we can have everything from personal blogs to enterprise applications. Thousands of add-on modules and designs let you build any site.
With another powerful open source project Magento, any shop can be built in minutes. From simply small shops to very large and complex businesses, it is used by the world’s leading brands. The platform again offers thousands of add-ons, modules and plugins to meet the unique requirements of each company.
“Magento is a feature-rich eCommerce platform built on open-source technology that provides on-line merchants with unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their eCommerce store. Magento’s intuitive administration interface features powerful marketing, search engine optimization and catalog-management tools to give merchants the power to create sites that are tailored to their unique business needs. Designed to be completely scalable and backed by Varien’s support network, Magento offers companies the ultimate eCommerce solution.”
Open source software is dedicated not only to companies or business organizations.
Edubuntu is the official version of Ubuntu Linux designed for use in classrooms and schools. This operation system offers software for younger and older students. This is a system that contains all the best free software available in education and makes it easy to install and maintain.
There are more educational GNU/Linux distributions like Debian-Edu, Fedora Education Spin, Guadalinux-Edu, OpenSuse-Edu or Qimo for Kids and Uberstudent.