Open Source Software and OSS

Open Source Software Part II

Desirable software attributes

There is widespread debate over the relative merits of proprietary software and OSS. However, it is difficult to make general comparisons; most analysts say comparisons should be made only on a case-by-case basis. It is generally agreed that whether software is open source or proprietary, the following attributes are of key importance:

• reliability: defined as how long a system can stay in operation without user intervention;
• quality: commonly defined as the number of errors in a fixed number of lines of code;
• security: how resilient the software is to unauthorised actions (e.g. viruses);
• flexibility: how easily the software can be customised to meet specific needs and run on different types of device;
• project management: how well organised the development process is;
• open standards: documents created with one type of software being readable in another. This avoids ‘lockin’ to a particular document format;
• switching costs: the cost of moving from one system to another;
• total cost of ownership (TCO): the full costs incurred over the lifetime of the software;
• user-friendliness: how easy the software is to use.


Advocates of OSS argue that, because it harnesses a large team of developers, bugs and errors can be rapidly spotted and fixed, thus increasing reliability and security. They also say that having a large team means that OSS is by necessity ‘modular’ (made up of discrete units, each with a specific function). Modularity simplifies software design and can increase the reliability as well as flexibility of software. Advocates also argue that, by making the source-code available with the software, there is no danger of ‘lock-in’ because document formats are transparent. However, critics point out that proprietary software can also have a high degree of reliability, flexibility and security and can also conform to open standards.

Many commentators argue that OSS projects can suffer from weak project management (because of their complex development structure) and that OSS can be difficult to use. The OSS community point out that new project management tools are being introduced and that efforts are being made to increase the ‘user-friendliness’ of OSS desktop applications. There are often concerns that OSS is unsupported, and contains unauthorised intellectual property (IP) belonging to third parties. However the OSS community say this can also be the case with proprietary software. Moreover, large firms such as IBM and Hewlett Packard now manage open source projects and indemnify users to give them added insurance.

There is broad acceptance that OSS and proprietary software are comparable in terms of software quality. It is acknowledged that switching costs can be high, whichever software model is used. There are conflicting reports on how total cost of ownership (TCO) varies for the two models. It is widely agreed that TCO should be evaluated only on a case by case basis. Many analysts believe that there is increasing symbiosis between the two models. For example, modularity is now seen as an important factor in the development of both proprietary and OSS. New project management tools are being used to manage both types of software projects.