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Open source: what is it and what software companies use it?

Open source, also known as open source, is a code of a program that is freely distributed, that is, it has no cost to use. In the same way, it can also be modified by users without any restrictions, which makes it very attractive to many software companies. An example that serves as an analogy may be that of a recipe. If the recipe were open source, it would be public and anyone could know the ingredients and the steps to prepare it. If the code was not open, you would have to ask for permission or acquire a license to use the recipe.

What are the differences between open source and closed source?

First of all we need to clarify that all free software is open source but not all open source software is free. These programs are more flexible in their rules because they allow other developers and software companies to use them and also suggest modifications.

In addition, open source can be used for whatever the user wants and can be distributed freely and for free, although some may be paid.

Among some advantages of using open source versus closed source we can name the following:

It is easy to know and modify
They allow to solve problems
Software companies or programmers can adapt it to your needs
Through constant collaboration and intervention, it is constantly improving
Modifications can also be freely distributed
Software overpricing is avoided
High quality standards are promoted

What companies use open source?

Today the use of open source code has become popular and many companies, even large corporations, use it to create their own programs. Some of them that you may know and even use their software today are:

Red Hat: It is a software company that provides open source and according to the site Linux Addicts, was acquired by IBM.
Canonical: This company creates various projects for the cloud and other companies. It is best known for the Ubuntu operating system, which is open source.
Google: This company needs no introduction. It is also one of the largest contributors to open source today.
IBM: As we discussed earlier, it absorbed Red Hat, adding to its history as a large software company the development of open source code.
Oracle: Sun Microsystems was one of the large open source companies and was acquired by Oracle to continue developing projects in this area.

Adobe: Their most popular product is perhaps Photoshop and open source has nothing, apart from the expensive license, but on GitHub they collaborate with a large repository of open source code.
Microsoft: Although it may not seem like it, Microsoft has also joined the software companies that use open source. They contributed after releasing some of their programs and with the purchase of GitHhub.
mongoDB: This company has one of the largest alternative database projects today.
Docker: It is a company that contributes a lot to projects in the cloud today through open source.
CHEF: They have an important open source platform to automate and allow defining infrastructures at various scales.

What open source programs are useful for your business?

SugarCRM is an open source program that will allow you to communicate between the company and its clients in order to solve doubts, answer questions and be able to offer better customer service.

WordPress is well known for being a very versatile CMS (Content Management System) with which you can create and manage websites quite easily.

VLC media player is a tool for playing multimedia content that is practically compatible with almost any file. Next on the list we have 7-Zip which is an alternative to create ZIP, RAR and packaged files.

Lastly, Thunderbird, which is an open source option for managing email just like Microsoft Outlook does. It's easy to set up and very useful for businesses of all sizes.

At The Cloud Group we work with open source in our software development projects and we always want to provide all our clients with the best options today for the solution they are looking for in their various businesses. If you are interested in knowing more or in talking with one of our specialists, contact us today or leave us a comment. Don't forget to share if you liked this post!