Open Source - Is it really value for money?

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It is also constantly evolving - as individuals and organisations decide to use the code, they make their own changes to the code, be it bug-fixes, tweaks to the code, or wholesale changes to add in new functionality. This can be a double edged sword for a business adopting open source. While it is great to know that development will not stop, it means that any changes you make will also have to be made open source (that's part of some of the licences) and handed back to the project.

Open source creates open source

This is a good thing. While you are going to have to make some changes to your employee contracts (typically the contracts will have an 'everything you write while you work for us belongs to us' clause that is going to require amendment) so that any code changes can be fed back into the source code, consider what happens when that coder's fixed contract ends and he moves onto another company in the same field. That's right, any changes he makes in his favourite open source application will be fed back into the source code, and you continue to gain benefit from his skill.

It should be noted that some open source licences (such as the Lesser General Public Licence, LGPG) only require you to publish changes you make to the code when you re-distribute the code. If you are using it for an internal project, then there is no supply your changes back to the project. Unless you want to, that is.

Finally, there is the knock-on effect of being seen to be supporters of open source. It's no surprise that when a company gets behind a project, the supporters of that project are going to be ready to blog about it, and get the word out that company X loves application Y enough to invest some time in it. And that means people in the area you work in talking highly about your company - the sort of viral marketing that your press team will love.

Open source is not a magic wand that will instantly wipe out half your software budget. Over time, I personally suspect that open source will be marginally cheaper over a few years, and show cost benefits out past five years compared to a similar closed source. But what it does offer is a much greater degree of flexibility - if you want something changed, nothing stops you doing it yourself. And there is a huge safety net in having that access. Open source is ready for prime time, and you'll be doing yourself no favours if you ignore it.

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