What is open source technology?
Open-source software or technology allows developers to modify or edit the source code. Essentially, it's the opposite of licenced software, as it gives developers around the world the opportunity to edit or customise the source according to requirements. As such, developers can easily optimise the source code and enhance the quality of a website, web application, piece of software and so on. Opens source has many benefits over licenced software.
Let's look at the benefits:
Enhanced security
Nowadays, security has become one of the serious concerns for all businesses in all industries. Some see open source as a compromise to their security and privacy. Technically, anyone can access your code and make changes to it. But we must view the other side of the picture in this regard. Open source gives the developers a chance to modify the source code for good. Developers can edit the software in a way to increase the security of particular software. In fact, they may customise it and make it as secure as possible. What's more, developers around the world can detect and remove bugs from the system before they become a problem.
Total flexibility
As open-source code is open to everyone, it removes the tight editing restrictions, as we see with proprietary or licenced software. Everyone is enabled to make modifications according to their specific requirements. With Drupal, you get an abundance of features and modules with core alone, which are all fully customisable to suit your exact circumstance. If there's something you need that isn't covered in core, it's likely a module or plugin is waiting for you on Drupal.org.
A world of support
Open source allows your IT team to access different platforms like chat rooms, documentation and other platforms. You can benefit further by taking up paid ongoing support options by people like us, the Drupal experts!
Another reason to go for open source technology is that you're getting access to the expertise and work of literally thousands of developers around the world who are constantly working on improving it. If your software is having an issue, developers can resolve this issue relatively quickly and for a low cost compared to building a new module from scratch.
Lower costs
Open source offers an affordable and reasonable price to its users. Unlike licenced software and proprietary systems, which are expensive out of the box, rigid in their structure and often have hidden costs after you're locked into a vendor, such as:
- Upgrade expenses
- Support changes
- Upgrade expenses
- Protection from viral threats
Most open-source tech doesn’t make you pay any kind of fee or extra charges. Apart from that, if a bug is reported, you don’t need to pay a software developer to remove it. Thousands of software developers accessing and working on the code can find your reported bug and remove it.
High-quality solutions
Open-source software and systems like Drupal are often of superior quality compared to licenced software and proprietary systems. This is because it is created by thousands of talented and competent developers to increase its quality and features. All these developers work to standardise the quality of open-source tech by customising its features and attributes. These web developers work to increase the security of software with the help of their expertise in the area of software development.
Conclusion
We're advocates of open source. It's where our roots as a company began. So, we use it wherever possible internally. We proudly contribute not only to Drupal but wherever our developer's interests lie. Feel free to check out our team on GitHub!