Apa sih open source itu?

Dalam beberapa kali pembicaraan soal permintaan penawaran harga (istilah kerennya quotation), saya seringkali bertemu dengan pertanyaan: “Apa sih maksudnya open source? Ama si itu, saya ditawarin harga 1/2-nya kamu tapi pake open source.”

Jadilah saya tergelitik bikin posting soal open-source ini, biar besok-besok kalo ketemu pertanyaan serupa, saya tinggal paste URL posting saya ini dan hopefully semuanya terjawab

Sourcenya dari http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/09/15/what-is-opensource.html

Open Source

Open source usually refers to software that is released with source code under a license that ensures that derivative works will also be available as source code, protects certain rights of the original authors, and prohibits restrictions on how the software can be used or who can use it. Open source began as, and for the most part still is, software created by a community of people who are dedicated to working together in a highly collaborative and evolutionary way.

Open Source vs. Commercial Software

The most important difference between software created by the open source communities and commercial software sold by vendors is that open source software is published under licenses that ensure that the source code is available to everyone to inspect, change, download, and explore as they wish. This is the essential meaning of open source: the source code–the language in which the software is written and the key to understanding how the software works–can be obtained and improved by anyone with the right skills.

More precise definitions extend this basic concept by adding provisions concerning derivative works, the rights to use the software for any purpose, the rights of the original author, and prohibitions against discrimination.

How Open Source Software Is Developed

For those new to the idea of open source or unfamiliar with the way software gets developed, here’s how it works most of the time:

• One or more developers–meaning people who have the skills to create software–get an idea about creating software to solve a problem.
• The developers start writing code to create a solution. This is frequently called “scratching an itch.”
• The developers put this code where other developers can find out about it, download it, and play with it. There are many locations, such as SourceForge.com, where people post their projects.
• Usually the source code is published under one of several popular open source licenses that ensure that the source code and any derivative works remain open source.
• Through an informal process of sharing ideas, fiddling with each others’ code, and trial and error, the software gets better and better, sometimes changing direction to solve new problems as new people discover the software.
• At some point, the software gets finished or doesn’t. It becomes popular, stays obscure, or fades away. Programs like Linux and Apache have had thousands of contributors. Other projects have been created by one or two people.
• As time goes on, developers come and go, and projects become active or dormant.

A huge amount of amazing software has been created through this loose process. While much of open source development has focused on creating tools for software developers, an increasing amount of effort is being put into creating programs to solve less technical problems like publishing blogs or keeping track of skydiving activity.

Kelebihan dan kekurangan open source

Nah, ini pertanyaan kedua yang seringkali mengikuti pertanyaan pertama. Kali ini contekan saya dari Wikipedia:

The main advantage for business is that open source is a good way for business to achieve greater penetration of the market. Companies that offer open source software are able to establish an industry standard and, thus, gain competitive advantage. It has also helped build developer loyalty as developers feel empowered and have a sense of ownership of the end product. Moreover less costs of marketing and logistical services are needed for OSS.

It also helps companies to keep abreast of all technology developments. It is a good tool to promote a companies’ image, including its commercial products. The OSS development approach has helped produce reliable, high quality software quickly and inexpensively. Besides, it offers the potential for a more flexible technology and quicker innovation. It is said to be more reliable since it typically has thousands of independent programmers testing and fixing bugs of the software.

It is flexible because modular systems allow programmers to build custom interfaces, or add new abilities to it and it is innovative since open source programs are the product of collaboration among a large number of different programmers. The mix of divergent perspectives, corporate objectives, and personal goals speeds up innovation. Moreover free software can be developed in accord with purely technical requirements. It does not require to think about commercial pressure that often degrades the quality of the software. Commercial pressures make traditional software developers pay more attention to customers’ requirements than to security requirements, since such features are somewhat invisible to the customer.

It is sometimes said that the open source development process may not be well defined and the stages in the development process, such as system testing and documentation may be ignored. However this is only true for small (mostly single programmer) projects. Larger, successful projects do define and enforce at least some rules as they need them to make the teamwork possible. In the most complex projects these rules may be as strict as reviewing even minor change by two independent developers.

Not all OSS initiatives have been successful, for example, SourceXchange and Eazel. Software experts and researchers who are not convinced by open source’s ability to produce quality systems identify the unclear process, the late defect discovery and the lack of any empirical evidence as the most important problems (collected data concerning productivity and quality). It is also difficult to design a commercially sound business model around the open source paradigm. Consequently, only technical requirements may be satisfied and not the ones of the market.

In terms of security, open source may allow hackers to know about the weaknesses or loopholes of the software more easily than closed-source software. It is depended of control mechanisms in order to create effective performance of autonomous agents who participate in virtual organizations.

So kembali lagi, semua ada kelebihan dan kekurangan. Selamat memilih!

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