"The question 'Why open source?' really encompasses two questions for the enterprise to consider: 'Why use open source software?' and 'Why should I develop my software in a community-based, open source way?' Inherent in that second question is the issue of what enterprises can learn from the successes of open source communities.
Benefits of Open Source Software
Open source applications are now available for every common type of enterprise software -- from databases, application servers and Web servers, to Web browsers and office applications, to network monitoring software and security software. Of course, in all these categories, mature commercial software alternatives also exist. So why choose open source? There are several reasons.
First, enterprises find that they consistently get great value -- and the desired ROI -- from open source software. The quality of open source software met or exceeded the expectations of 92 percent of respondents to a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research. Meanwhile, 87 percent of respondents said that open source software delivered the cost savings they were hoping for.
Second, acquisition cycles and associated entry costs are minimal for open source software -- at least for pilot projects and initial rollouts. Enterprises can use free versions of software to start a project without having to endure the protracted sales and acquisition cycles that often accompany pilot projects with commercial software. Also, there are scores of companies that build value-added capabilities on top of this freely available code, enabling an easy path to deploy open source-based applications in production. This more economical acquisition and deployment model allows organizations to dedicate greater portions of their budgets to customizations and innovations that really matter.
Third, open source applications can be even more secure than their commercial equivalents. Open source communities fixed security vulnerabilities twice as quickly as commercial software vendors did, according to a recent study by Veracode. Open source communities may seem chaotic and occasionally fractious, but they can be remarkably agile and cohesive when it counts. They've repeatedly shown they can do an excellent job discovering, characterizing, and patching security vulnerabilities. In addition, these community open source security practices are often backed by suppliers that provide commercial support and indemnification, which has had a dramatic effect on the rollout of open source applications in the enterprise.
In a nutshell, open source software has been proven to provide better value, lower costs, and improved security, addressing the most important enterprise considerations today.
Benefits of Open Source-Style Development
Now to our second question: "Why manage software development in a community-based, open source way?" Ten years ago, this was a novel -- perhaps even controversial -- notion. Today, this community-driven approach is quickly becoming mainstream as organizations across all industries and all parts of the globe seek to integrate open source-based methods with their application lifecycle management (ALM) approaches.
How did this happen? When companies adopt open source software, they almost always adopt open source community practices and begin to move away from some of the more traditional silo-based development tools and development processes that have been mainstream for the past 20 years. This isn't surprising. Any company using open source software suddenly finds itself part of a large, active community. To address questions about installation instructions, updates, best practices, and feature requests, developers find themselves posting questions on community forums, downloading patches from community servers, and so on.
Developers learn to go to the community, rather than to a sales rep or a customer support organization, to collaborate and get help. They experience first-hand the resourcefulness and "collective intelligence" of an open source community -- the members' ability to discover projects and people to answer questions, explore ideas, resolve disputes, and distribute releases and patches.
Managers are quickly realizing the benefit that community-based development can have on their businesses. The real-time communication and transparency their developers are discovering in open source communities are exactly what internal development teams need in order to create in a more agile way and meet the increasing business demand for delivering higher-quality software with reduced development cycles.
In essence, open source communities are already addressing the difficult management and collaboration problems that vex enterprises today: increased geographic distance between team members, architectural requirements for more modular software, and an Agile development cycle to link and make available business requirements -- as well as development, test, and deployment information -- to all of the stakeholders of the application development and management lifecycle.
As a result of realizing that community-based software development is a better way of building software, developers and managers alike are increasingly bringing the tools and processes of open source communities in-house. The modern enterprise's much-publicized adoption of "Enterprise 2.0" collaboration tools is an evolution of the enterprise deploying, for its own purposes, tools that matured in open source communities -- tools such as blogs, wikis, and software configuration management solutions that support distributed teams.
In many organizations, developers have been using open source tools for managing code revisions and tracking bugs for many years. Now, they're adding communication tools, such as wikis, blogs, and forums, and a host of lifecycle management tools, such as continuous integration, lab management, and release tools, to create a richer ALM platform in the context of a community environment."
SOURCE: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69788.html
If osu! were open-source, this would allow for more rapid development of the game, possibly ports to other operating systems, and money would still be made from donations.
My question now is... Why isn't osu open-source, yet?
Benefits of Open Source Software
Open source applications are now available for every common type of enterprise software -- from databases, application servers and Web servers, to Web browsers and office applications, to network monitoring software and security software. Of course, in all these categories, mature commercial software alternatives also exist. So why choose open source? There are several reasons.
First, enterprises find that they consistently get great value -- and the desired ROI -- from open source software. The quality of open source software met or exceeded the expectations of 92 percent of respondents to a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research. Meanwhile, 87 percent of respondents said that open source software delivered the cost savings they were hoping for.
Second, acquisition cycles and associated entry costs are minimal for open source software -- at least for pilot projects and initial rollouts. Enterprises can use free versions of software to start a project without having to endure the protracted sales and acquisition cycles that often accompany pilot projects with commercial software. Also, there are scores of companies that build value-added capabilities on top of this freely available code, enabling an easy path to deploy open source-based applications in production. This more economical acquisition and deployment model allows organizations to dedicate greater portions of their budgets to customizations and innovations that really matter.
Third, open source applications can be even more secure than their commercial equivalents. Open source communities fixed security vulnerabilities twice as quickly as commercial software vendors did, according to a recent study by Veracode. Open source communities may seem chaotic and occasionally fractious, but they can be remarkably agile and cohesive when it counts. They've repeatedly shown they can do an excellent job discovering, characterizing, and patching security vulnerabilities. In addition, these community open source security practices are often backed by suppliers that provide commercial support and indemnification, which has had a dramatic effect on the rollout of open source applications in the enterprise.
In a nutshell, open source software has been proven to provide better value, lower costs, and improved security, addressing the most important enterprise considerations today.
Benefits of Open Source-Style Development
Now to our second question: "Why manage software development in a community-based, open source way?" Ten years ago, this was a novel -- perhaps even controversial -- notion. Today, this community-driven approach is quickly becoming mainstream as organizations across all industries and all parts of the globe seek to integrate open source-based methods with their application lifecycle management (ALM) approaches.
How did this happen? When companies adopt open source software, they almost always adopt open source community practices and begin to move away from some of the more traditional silo-based development tools and development processes that have been mainstream for the past 20 years. This isn't surprising. Any company using open source software suddenly finds itself part of a large, active community. To address questions about installation instructions, updates, best practices, and feature requests, developers find themselves posting questions on community forums, downloading patches from community servers, and so on.
Developers learn to go to the community, rather than to a sales rep or a customer support organization, to collaborate and get help. They experience first-hand the resourcefulness and "collective intelligence" of an open source community -- the members' ability to discover projects and people to answer questions, explore ideas, resolve disputes, and distribute releases and patches.
Managers are quickly realizing the benefit that community-based development can have on their businesses. The real-time communication and transparency their developers are discovering in open source communities are exactly what internal development teams need in order to create in a more agile way and meet the increasing business demand for delivering higher-quality software with reduced development cycles.
In essence, open source communities are already addressing the difficult management and collaboration problems that vex enterprises today: increased geographic distance between team members, architectural requirements for more modular software, and an Agile development cycle to link and make available business requirements -- as well as development, test, and deployment information -- to all of the stakeholders of the application development and management lifecycle.
As a result of realizing that community-based software development is a better way of building software, developers and managers alike are increasingly bringing the tools and processes of open source communities in-house. The modern enterprise's much-publicized adoption of "Enterprise 2.0" collaboration tools is an evolution of the enterprise deploying, for its own purposes, tools that matured in open source communities -- tools such as blogs, wikis, and software configuration management solutions that support distributed teams.
In many organizations, developers have been using open source tools for managing code revisions and tracking bugs for many years. Now, they're adding communication tools, such as wikis, blogs, and forums, and a host of lifecycle management tools, such as continuous integration, lab management, and release tools, to create a richer ALM platform in the context of a community environment."
SOURCE: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69788.html
If osu! were open-source, this would allow for more rapid development of the game, possibly ports to other operating systems, and money would still be made from donations.
My question now is... Why isn't osu open-source, yet?