Comparing The Success & Future Of Open & Closed Source Software - Essay Example

This report examines the potential inherent in the Open Source Software and the factors that have hindered its widespread usage thus far. This information will then be used to arrive at an assessment of whether or not open source software could better serve the needs of public sector institutions as opposed to closed software. Open source software is not the same as freeware. Open source is software that a user can use and freely modify or distribute to others, subject to some minimal restrictions to protect the copyright license which exists on the software (Ebert, 2009).

Free software on the other hand, is software that can be copied, modified or distributed without any restrictions at all.(www.chopey.blogspot.com). The opposite of freeware is closed software. This is software that is not freely available and cannot be used without restrictions; it must be purchased from the individual or company that holds the copyright over its use. The notable example of this is the proprietary Windows software owned by Bill Gates’ company, Microsoft. The design of software is viewed as an investment because it involves an investment in formulating it, but at the same time it also provides benefits in that it facilitates certain operations, which justified the costs(Slaughter et al, 1998).

Where closed source software is concerned, it is the short term returns from the software that assume a greater level of importance; as a result quality may sometimes be sacrificed in order to ensure that a piece of software is produced within stipulated deadlines. (Slaughter et al, 1998). Due to this, the quality of the source code may be lacking, so that after a certain period of time it will need to be replaced, updated or modified. Since closed software is proprietary with a copyright and cannot be freely copied or modified, this often means that the Company which produced the