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What do you look out for when acquiring open source software?

If your organization is considering acquiring software, continuity and professional support are very important. Over the last few years, a large number of closed source developers have bitten the dust. Open source could therefore be an attractive alternative. One problem is that the open source world can initially seem to be difficult to fathom for the uninitiated.

A few simple guidelines and actions that can help you to distinguish between good and bad projects are given below:

  • successful open source projects have large and internationally-based development groups and user groups;
  • the project is technologically forward-looking;
  • the documentation of the open source project is in order (check whether there is documentation and look to see if books have been published about it, e.g. on Amazon.com);
  • good open source projects comply with open standards.

These successful projects often have a variety of suppliers offering support and guarantees. The continuity is assured because there is a large community contributing to the project development. There are a few international institutions that open source projects can join. The best-known and largest organization in this field is the Apache Software Foundation. Projects within this group are checked for usability, architecture, technological innovation and conformity to open standards.

If you choose a professional supplier of open source software, who participates in international state-of-the-art open source projects, you will avoid problems. Support and continuity are guaranteed, and you can make the most of the benefits offered by open source software.