Top Tips For Selecting Open Source Software

Here are few tips that could help when we are choosing an open source software.

First and foremost of it would be REPUTATION

It is always good to have a very reputed software known for its performance and reliability.It is worth the salt. Some open source software has a very good reputation in the industry, e.g. Apache web server, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Linux, Samba etc.  A good discussion with someone who has a great experience in the field would also do.

The next thing in the list would be ONGOING EFFORT

Checking the ongoing development of the software and fixing of bugs and meeting user needs should also take top priority. These are the evidences that its a good open source software.

Now comes the STANDARDS AND OPERABILITY

Choose software which implements open standards. Interoperability with other software is an important way of getting more from your investment. Good software does not reinvent the wheel, or force you to learn new languages or complex data formats.

Then we deal with the concept of SUPPORT in both community and commercial senses

Check if the project has a good support community to fall back in case of the problem.If you post a message to the list and receive a reasonably prompt and helpful reply, this may be a sign that there is an active community of users out there ready to help.

Third party commercial support is available from a diversity of companies, ranging from large corporations such as IBM and Sun Microsystems, to specialist open source organizations such as Red Hat and MySQL, to local firms and independent contractors. Commercial support is most commonly available for more widely used products or from specialist companies who will support any product within their particular specialism.

We then move on to VERSION

Check when the latest version was released. Virtually no software, proprietary or open source, is completely bug free. If there is an active development community, newly discovered bugs will be fixed and patches to the software or a new version will be released. For enterprise use, you need the most recent stable release of the software, where there have been many recent releases in the unstable branch of development.

pen source projects usually follow the release early and often motto. While in development they may have very low version numbers. Typically a product needs to reach its 1.0 release prior to being considered for enterprise use.

Check for DOCUMENTATION

Open source software projects may lag behind in their documentation for end users, but they are typically very good with their development documentation. You should be able to trace a clear history of bug fixes, feature changes, etc. This may provide the best insight into whether the product, at its current point in development, is fit for your purposes.

last but not the least LICENSES

Open source software is as much about the licence as it is about the development methodology. Read the licence. Well-known licences such as the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) have well defined conditions for your contribution of code to the ongoing development of the software or the incorporation of the code into other packages. If you are not familiar with these licences or with the one used by the software you are considering, take the time to clarify conditions of use.