Open Source Software (OSS) refers to the software application whose source code is available in public for the developers to monitor, alter or implement according to their wish. There are two factors of OSS i.e. the available code and the crowd-sourced development that takes OSS to next level.
TOP 7 BENEFITS OF OSS SYSTEM
1. HIGH PRODUCT GROWTH
Being an Open source license, it is accessible for constant monitoring, analyzing and using among the large of developers. One of the primary benefits of OSS is that there are thousands of independent developers working on the project worldwide. They closely watch, monitor, analyze the possibilities, and thereby work on it with a mission of constant improvement and expanding the potentialities. The result is high security and accountability of OSS. The collective power of developer community enables with quicker development and troubleshooting. This property makes it highly reliable and forefront in security aspects.
2. COST EFFECTIVE
No licensing fees remains a decisive advantage of OSS while looking at the total deployment cost. Unlike the proprietary software like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics which charges a huge sum of money as their license fees, here OSS provides it free. One can use this budget amount in latter customizations making it best and perfecting suiting software tool for the business.
3. NO VENDOR LOCK-IN
Proprietary software often comes with the risk of getting locked in either by the vendor or technology. Often in this situation, enterprises get troubled with vendors' price increase and also experience the lack of flexibility which they can’t readily escape. OSS has no vendor lock-in providing ultimate freedom to work in the application without the fear of getting outdated.
4. SUPREME QUALITY
Like the developers timely fix the bugs and defects, they also constantly bring in improvement via contributing additional features to OSS. There can be hundreds or thousands of developers in an open source project, adding new features or enhancing the existing software applications. They constantly improve the overall quality of the software, unlike the proprietary software that comes with a fixed number of features in hand and limited possibility of future customizations for enhancing.
5. HIGHLY SECURE
It is very well known that no software is completely free from bugs or defects. But what makes OSS different from other software is that, the nature of open source software development that helps in easy catching and early bug fixing. An Open Source Development member can release a new version after finding and fixing the bug, which is soon made available to the public. Users are left with the option of upgrading them at immediate or waiting until the official upgrade. There is no such speed in the commercial software world.
6. EASY INTEGRATION
Just like the customizations, integrations with other software is already made available. However, an easy integration is the characteristic of OSS that makes it stand out from others. Being an open source, developers are more likely to implement the open standards (the widely used data formats) comparing to companies that selling proprietary software. OSS combines the power of its large community of developers around the world, who work on different use cases and thereby provides valuable feedback, especially among the reusable modules. Whereas in case of other proprietary software, the integration is tough and limited.
7. INCREASED CUSTOMIZATION
Another prime advantage is that source code is available, OSS remains highly flexible to customizations. As thousands of potential and highly skilled developers have access to the code, they constantly bring in new customizations and additions to the existing features making it perfect to the business verticals.