Proprietary Software’s Competition from Open Source Software
Proprietary software, or closed source software, is facing competition from open source software in numerous markets. The Open Source Initiative dictates ten criteria that open source software must meet, one of which being that the source code must be included with the program. Licenses that adhere to the Open Source Initiative’s Open Source Definition allow for free distribution and modification of open source software. One prominent open source license is the GNU General Public License (GPL.) The GNU GPL outlines the central philosophies of free software.
Some reasons that people or companies choose open source software over proprietary software include security, overall cost, and the ability for anyone to improve on the software. With source code freely available, any person can find and report or possibly even fix security vulnerabilities, whereas developers of proprietary software must address any security vulnerabilities. The total cost of o