Question

What is meant by "open source" software? How is it different from "proprietary" software? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to each style of software? Give some examples of each type of software (proprietary and open source).

Answer 1

What "open source" software means:
Open-source software is software whose source code, design, ideas, are openly available and accessible to the public, users, developers, and other communities to manipulate (modify or edit) the original code of the software, sharing, collaborating and communicating each one of their ideas. Most of these open-source software is available for free. However, the "open source" software does not always mean "free" software. Hence, this software is released under a license in which the copyright holder, publisher, developer grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

How it is different from "proprietary" software:
Proprietary software, on the other hand, are software developed by a particular company and they release the software live to the general public for a certain price. Also, the source code of this software is not public or not open source and no one can access or hack the source code. This software is privately owned by a proprietor. These are also called closed-source software. Hence, these are non-free computer software. The software's publisher or another individual developer retains intellectual property rights, mostly copyright of the source code, at times patent rights.

Some of the benefits and drawbacks to each style of software:
Open-source software pros:
* Free software or no initial cost.
* It is highly reliable.
* It provides longevity.
* It provides security.
* Open source code or software is available and accessible to everyone.
* Flexible to change the code per one's business requirements.

Open-source software cons:
* It comes with a long-term cost.
* There is no support when there are technical issues.
* These are in a way called orphan software.
* It provides less security compared to the proprietary software.
* This software is not as user-friendly from the usability perspective.

Proprietary software pros:
* Copyrighted and the source code is not available, thus the proprietor could make a profit out of it selling the same.
* These are user-friendly from the usability perspective.
* There is product stability.
* They offer tailored support for the customers to choose from for their need for a different level of support services.

Proprietary software cons:
* There is a charge associated for the usage of the software and for any enhanced features, functionalities, and capabilities of the software, for which the customers are required to pay more to the proprietor.
* From the dependency perspective, customers are dependent on the proprietor for the services, which are subject to change without notice.
* There is a software opacity as the internals of closed or proprietary source software are closed to viewing for customers to make customizations or optimizations in their final product.

Some examples of each type of software (proprietary and open-source):
Open-source software: Ubuntu (one of the Linux distributions) Operating System (OS), Android (Mobile OS) from Google, PuTTY software which is an MIT License is an SSH and telnet client, developed for the Windows platform. Also, these are free software. Others are MySQL Relational Database Management System (RDMS), FreeBSD Unix-like operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms, Apache HTTP web server, etc.

Proprietary software: Windows client and server OSs, many application software that are paid software such as Apple Mac OS, iOS, Oracle software for databases, Adobe Flash Player, iTunes, WinRAR, etc.