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Open-source software
taking hold on the desktop

Recently, the Trans-Pacific Open Source Software Conference drew an eclectic mix of businesspeople, government folks, and plain-old techies to the Hawaii Convention Center. Speakers from all sides of the Pacific talked about their experience and initiatives with open-source software.

What is open-source software?

Open source is just that -- it means that the "source code" for the software is open to anyone who wants to look at it. Source code is the basic information that is used to build software. Anyone with access to the source code can make an exact copy of the end product. For this very reason, most software companies have kept the source code for their products well guarded.

What are the benefits of open-source software? If you are a business owner or run an information technology department, the foremost benefit is cost. Although it is a popular myth that open-source software is free, this is not always the case. When it is not free, however, it is usually significantly less expensive than proprietary software.

As a result of the bottom dollar, open source software products have become much more prevalent in the general business community. By now, most folks charged with making IT-related decisions are familiar with the Linux operating system. There are several versions ("distributions" or "distros" in tech-speak) of Linux; some of the more popular are RedHat and SuSE. SuSE was recently purchased by Novell, an "old-school" software company if there ever was one.

Linux-based servers are used to support applications in all types of industries. This includes businesses stereotypically classified as technologically "staid" including finance, government, and even healthcare.

Another extremely popular open-source software application is the Apache Web server. Approximately two-thirds of all servers on the Internet are powered by Apache.

Other open-source software applications are taking hold on the desktop. Open Office (openoffice.org), includes a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, and a presentation tool. Open Office can also read and save files in Microsoft format. Open Office is free. Sun Microsystems markets a version of Open Office called "Star Office"(www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.xml) which is not free, but considerably less expensive than Microsoft Office.

We've beaten the open-source Firefox browser (www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) to death in this space, but it is the leading competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It also does wonders for preventing pop-ups, spyware, and viruses.

For organizations in need of a powerful database, MySQL (www.mysql.com) has been selected by many organizations over competitors such as Oracle, IBM's db2, and Sybase's SQL Server.

Last, one of the most talked-about open-source applications is BitTorrent (www.bittorent.org/).

BitTorrent is the latest in a line of file-sharing tools that allow its users to efficiently download music and video from the web. BitTorrent claims its process is 100 percent legal, but like its predecessors, including Napster and Kazaa, only time will tell.

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