Institutional Adoption of Open Source Software - Research Paper Example

AL ADOPTION OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE A Paper Presented to Department In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements forthe Degree by Your Name March 2010 Abstract The availability of open source software is very crucial for most of the institutes. The reasons which are taken into account for adoption of software are cost, reliability, compatibility, and its customization. Open source software adoption is considered as a core issue in different institutes after keeping in view their infrastructure. The institutes have to adopt different ways in selection of an open source application which will be able to fulfill their technical and managerial needs. Our research is focusing on the issues which are faced by different institutions in the adoption of an open source application depending upon the pros and cons of OSS. Table of Contents 1.1 Introduction 4 2.1 Keywords 5 3.1 Concept behind OSS Adoption 5 4.1 Key Vendors 9 5.1 History/Current State of Technology 9 6.1 Managerial Issues 10 7.1 Technology Examples 13 8.1 Future of OSS 15 9.1 Conclusions 15 10.1 References 16 Introduction When OSS got momentum, the buzzwords start flying quick and loose. But the very boom of open source software forces the different institutes to take into consideration the OSS depending upon its advantages. The availability of free open source softwares (OSS) is a sort of great help at individual and at institutional or organizational level. The OSS is gaining popularity in both commercial and government domains. An interesting issue in the soft technology is the issue of choice between the proprietary and OSS. Institutes or different organizations are seeing the OSS as an alternative of the proprietary software. The open source applications like Apache, Perl and Sendmail are the focus of different organizations or institutions for their internet based applications or systems. As quoted about open source software: The vision for many developing countries is that by using affordable yet effective open source software to bridge the digital divide, they can achieve rapid and sustainable economic and social development. (Joshua L Mindel, Lik Mui, Sameer Verma, 2007) Most of the institutions or organizations adopt open source software due to certain advantages which open source applications are providing. The advantages which are taken into consideration are low cost of license, more stable features, high security, user friendliness, support cost and facility to upgrade the existing tool according to the new requirements due to the availability of source code. So in the presence of all these advantages we can conclude that open source software is free to use, copy, distribute and modify. In the adoption of an OSS institutes also pay severe attention to economic growth that what is the Return On Investment (ROI). The ROI must be taken into account as an advantage of OSS. But there are certain disadvantages which must also be taken into account by an institute before the adoption of an OSS. These cons or disadvantages include few features provided by OSS, needs training for the new features which consume time, limited support provided by the vendor or not good documentation. Key words The keywords which we come across again and again in our research area are OSS, Proprietary Software (PS), Apache Server, Linux OS, Free Software, Customization, Quality, Reliability, Security, and Management Issues. Companies are adopting the open source software due to an increased attention on component based software. OSS is available freely but lacking some features. A PS is one for which the license is not free. Proprietary Software is more robust, efficient and full of features than on OSS. OSS comes without direct costs like license fees while in the case of Proprietary Software the license is not free. A PS provides mature functionality and additional functionality is based on the terms and conditions. The comparison of OSS and PS is performed in the light of technical factors like cost, quality, customizability, reliability, security and many others. The term Free Software is an alternative of OSS which is available with limited functionality and their source code is also available for customization needs. The strength of OSS is great and we have to take the example of Apache Server which is an OSS. The first version of Apache Server was developed by Robert McCool. The open source Apache Server is referred as merely Apache which is playing a vital role in the growth of World Wide Web. The free software Apache was an alternative of Sun Java System Web Server of Netscape Communications Corporation. Another example of an OSS is Linux which is available as a Free Software with certain features and these features will be enough for some institute and not for the other. The other institute will have to purchase the PS or licensed version of Linux. Theme of OSS Adoption With the advent of OSS the scenario of IT environment has totally changed. Most of the institutions or organizations have shifted from proprietary in-house softwares to OSS. The major concept which is at all lying behind the adoption of OSS is based upon the advantages and disadvantages of an OSS. The institutes have to adopt an OSS after complete analysis of their requirements. In the coming scenario we will have to discuss the different factors based on which an institute can select and open source software. The first thing which is of great concern is the license model of OSS and proprietary software. In adoption of an OSS new license fee is required initially but the subsequent versions i.e. upgrading of new features, or updating of the existing application would not be free. But on the other hand the proprietary software license would not be free and further the additional payments would be given for updates, renewal of license and for upgrading of new features. For academic institutes the academic licenses are issued with certain terms and conditions. For adopting an OSS the advantage of flexibility also play a vital role. The flexibility provides the opportunity to customize the software according to the specific needs of the institute. The software can be customized by using the free available source code. For customization the advantage of source code also helps in outsourcing of the code for specific functions. In case of proprietary software the source code is not available to the users because the proprietary software is providing more features than OSS. The proprietary software comes in the form of suits rather than in the form of modules. Most of the institutes and even individuals use OSS tools in their routine work and they are not using the commercial tools for their tasks. The concept behind the adoption of OSS is that if you are using a commercial tool for editing your data and ultimately you produce a file and this file does not match in some other commercial tool in which you want to use it then there is the need of either Perl or Python scripts for fulfilling this purpose. Ultimately a user will shift to such sources where there would not be the compatibility issue. So the people have to search the free supporting network resources where OSS is available freely to open-source community. Some of the online available resources are forge.net, freshmeat.net, free software foundation (www.fsf.org) and many others. Institutes must analyze the OSS in terms of compatibility with other standards. Most of the open-source applications are providing the advantage of compatibility. Standard compatibility is also a concept which is underlying in the said research. Open source software adheres to the open standards like: OSF (Open Software Foundation), DNS (Domain Name System), ANSI (American National Standards Association), LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), SSL (Secure Socket Layer), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), X11 (X-Windows Protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), SQL (Structured Query Language), MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). (Huaiqing Wang, Chen Wang, 2001) In adopting open source applications there is the advantage of support cost. In case of OSS the external support is available mostly free but its not so in the case of proprietary software. Typically, the only source of external support is the proprietary software vendor, and the lack of alternatives reduces user control during negotiations. OSS is not providing the user with IP indemnification but some vendors like RedHat and Novell SuSe can provide it freely. So it can serve as a sort of disadvantage in case of OSS. In case of proprietary software the user can request to vendor for IP indemnification. The attributes for assessing the OSS are same as those which are taken into account in case of proprietary software. The advantage of features is also a core factor in selecting an OSS. In the case of OSS the institute must analyze the core features of the OSS and on the basis of these features we can find out the fitness of purpose that either the software is providing the required functionality or not. A major disadvantage in case of OSS is the quality of the software that either the software process is properly managed or not. There may be number of errors in the open source applications. On the other hand proprietary software is totally free of such fallacies and they are more robust and managed. For adopting an application the institute must focus the issue of reliability. Though the OSSs are providing maximum reliability but when deciding to opt an opportunity must review all the reliability issues that how long the product will remain available. Another disadvantage in case of OSS is security. Security in the sense that code of an OSS is open and any one can change the vulnerabilities. But in case of proprietary software the code is not open to any one and it is hard to exploit the potential features of the application. For adopting an OSS an institute must analyze the interfaces provided by OSS. The disadvantage of an OSS is that the interfaces or poorly developed but on the other hand the proprietary software provides better user interfaces. There are certain managerial concepts behind adoption of open source technology. Here at this very time our focus of research is not about the issues which are related to management but we are just going to note down the managerial concepts for adopting OSS. Management of an organization requires benefit in the form of ROI (return on investment) that either the investment done by the company is yielding the required output or not. For example if an institution or company is using Microsoft products then the company can get benefit in both the fields i.e. hardware and software because Microsoft is providing a robust support to its users. Microsoft is providing support in the form of comprehensive library of OSS or open-source applications. The only reason for adopting Microsoft Windows Platform is its winning status in the industry. So if an organization is following a losing standard and that very standard is proprietary one then even the organization must have to shift from a losing one to a winning standard either the standard is proprietary or OSS. There are many more other concepts which are providing a clear perception in adoption of OSS. Some of the concepts are discussed in the ongoing details. Companies are of the view that it is not essential that very costly proprietary software would be as reliable as required so instead of developing their own software application or system companies have to prefer to adopt an open-source application for their business needs or requirements. So keeping in view all the above-stated pros and cons institutes decide to select an open source application. Key Vendors The best criterion which is taken into account for consideration of an OSS is good quality, reliability and flexibility. Now the list of OSS consists of hundreds of the software which are available either at low cost or without any charges. In this part of our research our focus is to point out the key vendors of OSS. Large software key vendors include IBM, Sun, Dell, HP, and Oracle. These industry giants are making significant amounts of indirect revenue from their activities with and support of OSS. This has greatly aided mainstream adoption and acceptance of OSS. History/Current State of Technology The history which is concerned with OSS is very long. From history it is obvious that in the beginning there were free software. But later the concept of proprietary software originated and it dominated as a key business point. The proprietary software is considered as a very good model in perspective of business. IBM in 1960 sold its large scale commercial computers along with free software. The software was free in the sense that they can be shared among users and source code was also provided publically. In late 1970s and early 1980s Richard Stallman launched the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation. His aim was to write the code of a general public free operating system. For GNU tool a general public license (GPL) was designed and the purpose of GPL was that the software will remain free and it also helped in promoting free software more and more. So this is the basic history of OSS. The late 1990s are the times which are considered as exciting for OSS. The OSS systems were gaining acceptance among general public and in 1998 the free availability of Netscape Communicator introduced a boom in software industry. Now the OSS in present times has also got an industrial status. Managerial Issues Different organizations or institutions have issued different reports regarding adoption decisions of OSS. In most of the reports or research papers researchers have given contradictory conclusions and advices. The institutions are lacking in proper planning or criteria for adopting open-source technology. For adoption of OSS planning is the major part of management so the higher management must have to consider the issue carefully and seriously. If care would not be taken then any wrong decision can lead the organization towards deficit. For keeping the organization safe from severe financial or managerial risks there is the need of an evaluation criterion for adopting OSS. The evaluation criterion also must specify the conflicting issues which probe severe problems in decision making for adoption of OSS. There is a general trend that OSS license is free of cost but on the other hand some institutions argue that the low cost of OSS is an appealing factor in adopting OSS. In the light of this statement it is obvious that all OSS are not free but they are charging less than proprietary software. So the perceptions of freeware can be misleading sometimes in adoptions of an OSS. There is valid reason behind this that if a software is totally free for general public then it is possible that there would be some off features in that very version but if a version of the same software is providing in a less cost those features which are off in the free version then this would serve better. We will have to consider the following example from Linux platform: Several enterprise Linux distributions are available, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. These products are based on freely available Linux distributions, but include additional services for enterprise customers, such as the certification of Linux for certain hardware, access to software updates, and support services. Some organizations are satisfied with a freely available Linux distribution, whereas others prefer the enterprise version. (Kris Ven, Jan Verelst, Herwig Mannaert, 2008) A professional OSS is evaluated by taking into consideration certain technical requirements and these requirements are directly a part and parcel of the managerial issues. When an organization is going to adopt an OSS then it is the responsibility of the management to check the availability of technical support for the proposed OSS. The support provided by the OSS vendor must be at commercial level and also within the resources of the institute or organization. The vendor must ensure the availability of training, operation manuals or documentations, must provide help to fix errors and consultancy as and when needed. Another jargon of OSS is the availability of source code. The supporters of OSS advocate that the availability of source code of OSS helps in improving the overall quality of the system under operation. The organization or institution can enhance the functionality of OSS because the source code helps in the modification. Some institutes have found this thing that source code is not considered by the institutions as an advantage or disadvantage. In selection of an OSS managers have to compare the advantages and disadvantages of proprietary software with an OSS and OSS is considered as a black box. If both are found matching at a high degree then the decision of adoption is taken into consideration. The availability of source code is taken as an advantage by some institutes or organizations. They consider the source code an advantage in the sense that there would not be any hidden features and if there would be the existence of bugs or errors then the source code will help them in fixing the bugs or errors depending upon the severity level of the bug. They don’t have to consider source code an advantage in terms of customization. But from the availability of source code it is evident that it provides a learning process which helps in improving the skills. There is also a third case related to the source code for adoption of OSS. There are some organizations in which managers have to pay immense attention to the source code. They have to consider the source code as a white box. They have to test the applications in different scenarios for the organizational needs. Actually there main purpose is not to customize the application rather they just want to understand the functionality of the system. Most of these institutions are also concerned with the development of OSS. So in such institutions managers have to decide the adoption of an OSS according to the features which are also required in their own software. Keeping the source code away and if managers are not interested in source code then they have to consider the adoption of OSS in perspective of upgradability with respect to functions and operations. Managers consider the issue that the vendor of OSS should provide the additional capabilities as and when required. As the upgradability is based upon the future requirements so mangers also keep this thing in mind that future versions of OSS must provide backward compatibility. As discussed earlier about the open standard compatibility which is also a serious management concern. So the managers choose such OSS standards which support various open standards or protocols. Management also adheres to the future versions of OSS for analyzing the very support of new open standards or protocols by the OSS. Another trait of OSS which is also given a high priority is the flexibility of OSS with respect to customization. The adopted OSS must be able to provide extra functionality after customizing it according to the needs of different technical environments. The organizations have to adopt the OSS generally due to the reason that mostly the OSS provides maximum optimization because the source code is publically available. Management also considers an OSS in the light of reliability. The adopted OSS must provide a highly controlled, reliable and manageable ability of operations. The data must be analyzed in a more robust way by the OSS and its performance is evaluated on the basis of its operational behavior in different environments. The above discussed managerial 1issues are related to the technical requirements of the OSS. Then there are some issues which are purely dealing with managerial requirements for adopting OSS. The first one which is most important management issue or requirement is the budgetary issue. Organizations have to consider an OSS with respect to the costs of the OSS that either it is available freely or at a less cost than the proprietary software. We have discussed this issue already in depth. The management team considers the adoption of an OSS in terms of the expertise of the development team. Lack of familiarity of the experts with the adopted OSS will also pose a financial threat in the form of training of the development team. Why training is essential because ultimately after some period there would arise the need of maintainability of the adopted software. In long term maintainability and manageability number of different characteristics of an OSS system are taken into account. OSS Technology Examples Open source software industry is growing in a rapid pace. Hundreds of examples of OSS are there in the real world. It is impossible to consider all of them in this article but we have to discuss different OSS in brief with respect to their functionality and try to cover as much knowledge as possible. Firefox is a usable web browser which provides number of different features. And these features provide a sort of more productivity. Firebird is a relational database and it is providing many ANSI SQL features supported by Windows, Linux, and on different platforms of UNIX. PostgreSQL is an OSS which is available for online indexing of data and provides relevance ranking for searching databases. Simply it is a search engine. PostgreSQL is supported by Windows, UNIX, Linux, OS X and Solaris. Joomla is a powerful content management system. It is used for development of simple websites and complex corporate applications. It is easy to install, more manageable and more reliable. Druple is also a content management system providing powerful features. It is used to develop personal weblogs and community-driven websites. phpMyAdmin is used for the administration of MySQL on the web. It performs many of the database administration tasks like running SQL queries or statements, adding and dropping databases, and also adding, deleting and editing tables and fields. phpMyAdmin is platform independent. Dev-C++ provides a fully featured IDE for C/C++ programming languages. Dev-C++ has to use Mingw port of GCC as its compiler. It can also be used with Cygwin or any other GCC based compiler. EasyPHP is a software package which is providing all the flexible features of PHP language and efficient use of databases. EasyPHP includes an Apache server, MySQL database, a functional PHP, and other easy development tools for developing websites and applications. Notepad++ is free source code editor which supports several programming languages like C, C++,Java, C#, XML, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, RC resource file, make file, ASCII art file(extension .nfo, doxygen), ini file, batch file, ASP, VB/VBS source files, SQL, Objective-C, CSS, Pascal, Perl, Python and Lua. SharpDevelop is a free IDE for C# and VB.Net and Boo Projects. It consists of forms designer, code completer, integrated debugger and number of different features. It is supported by Microsoft Windows. PDFCreator is a free tool which is available to create PDF files from Windows applications. It also has the ability to create PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, or EPS files. It is supported by Microsoft Windows only. These are some of the examples of open source applications which are available freely or at low costs. There are hundreds of open source applications which are available for different purposes. It is impossible to cover all the technology advancement in the very article. Future of OSS We have discussed number of issues and factors regarding the adoption of OSS. In the light of these issues or factors we can guess the future of OSS in an easy way. A free dish ever feels more delicious than a charged one. The OSS systems are providing more robustness, reliability, efficiency, free of cost or rather availability at low cost and many other fascinating features. So in the light of these qualities or attributes more of the organizations remain in search of such open source applications. Different institutions are busy in writing or developing such OSS system for general public and they are struggling for the long term financial plans. Conclusions There are different selection methods for adopting an OSS. The awareness with these issues or selection method plays a vital role in adoption of such systems. The above-mentioned scenario shows that the adoption is not significant due to the different involved issues. Most of the researchers asserted this thing that there is the need of some powerful criteria for the evaluation of OSS. One factor which is evident in the selection scenario that the vendors of OSS must provide complete information regarding the capabilities of OSS e.g. the features of OSS, the dependencies involved, documentation, training etc. Further innovation plays an important role in the growth of economy at macro and micro level. Macro level economic growth is taken into account at country level adoption of OSS while the micro level economic growth is taken into account at organizational or institutional level. Different claims are made about the adoption of OSS but it is impossible to find out that which are true and which are false. There is a sort of confliction among all these claims regarding the adoption of OSS. Simply we can conclude that decision makers consider the adoption of OSS in the context of requirements which are specific for their organization. References Best Open Source Software. http://lifehacker.biz/articles/best-open-source-software/ Burnell West. (2006). Making more out of Open-source tools. IEEE Design & Test of Computers. Brian Donofio. (2004). The Politics of Free Open Source Software in Government. JCSC Guido Schryen, Rouven Kadura. (2009). Open Source Vs Closed Source Software: Towards Measuring Security. Honolulu Hawaii, USA. ACM Huaiqing Wang. (2001). Open Source Software Adoption: A Status Report. IEEE SOFTWARE Jason Dedrick, Joel West. (2004). An Exploratory Study into Open Source Platform Adoption. 0-7695-2056-1/04.IEEE. 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