Website Design using the Open Source Platform
What is 'Open Source Software' ?
When software is distributed it is mainly distributed in a form (binary or compiled code) that only allows the manufacturer to modify the software. It is also distributed with a license that restricts how the software can be distributed and what you can do with it.
'Open Source Software' is always distributed in a way in which it can be modified (i.e. with source code) and has a more flexible licensing arrangement. Because of the this open source software can be modified and upgraded by anyone who is using it. In a sense the software is 'community written' software and is available at no charge.
Open Source Software is free ?
Sort of but not really. The companies and individuals who sponsor open source projects still need resources and labour to produce the software. If you use a piece of open source software you can contribute in a number of ways:
- By making a donation.
- By contributing to the software. e.g. testing, coding, bug reporting.
Open Source Software is also unsupported. If you are familiar with the technology you can support it yourself. If you are not you often will need to purchase support.
What Open Source Software do you support ?
We will support any open source software providing it utilises technology we are familiar with. This is primarily PHP, MySQL, Apache and Linux.
Links
For more information please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software
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