It seems to me that people are increasingly misunderstanding what Open Source actually means. For starters, Open Source does not imply free of cost (though it happens to be true more often than not). Take one look at RedHat's online catalog and you'll see that some of their Open Source server Operating Systems cost thousands of dollars.
There's also this ridiculous notion that Open Source software is cheaply and poorly written by people with too much time of their hands. On the contrary, more and more Open Source software is being developed - and not to mention used - by corporations with experienced development teams.
So then, what, might you ask, does Open Source ACTUALLY mean? Quite simply, Open Source means that the program's code is openly available. There are many licenses, some of which are more permissive and some of which are more restrictive, but they generally all require the same thing - any branch of code based on the original must be distributed with the same license.
DRUPAL
Drupal is one of the most powerful and flexible CMS's out there, and it happens to be Open Source (and free!). At the time of this writing, Drupal has 14,462 community-developed modules that allow almost anything you can think of.
Because of this modularity, Drupal can be fully-customized to support a wide-range of sites, from e-commerce and blogs, to intranet and portal sites.
Here's a link to take a look at some of the sites currently using Drupal: Case Studies. You'll notice that some very large companies are using Drupal as their platform, and there are even several government sites powered by Drupal (did I mention that Drupal has an entire team dedicated to maintaining their world-reknowned security?)!
MAGENTO
I'm a really big fan of Magento. In fact, I would recommend Magento for any website that has e-commerce as its primary focus. Don't just take it from me though, one look at their Showcase and you'll see that some of the largest e-commerce sites out there are run on Magento.
I'm a bit biased though (obviously), but only because I have a vast personal experience with Magento. Not to brag or anything, but I've worked on multi-million dollar sites and feel that Magento is the best system out there (that was totally bragging)...
Either way, Magento's website sums the softare up nicely:
Magento is the fastest growing eCommerce Platform on the planet. Power, stability, and cutting edge features make Magento easy to deploy, maintain, upgrade and work with. Flexibility and extensibility help keep Magento open to merchant's needs and always poised for change--a necessity in today's eCommerce marketplace. Whether you are a mom and pop shop looking to take it to the web or a large multi-channel retailer looking to enhance your online presence and increase your conversions, Magento is your premier eCommerce platform for growth. - http://www.magentocommerce.com
...AND THEN THERE'S YII
As far as I'm concerned, Yii is the best PHP framework right now. This powerful framework is capable of delivering truely enterprise-worthly solutions in significantly less time than other frameworks. In fact, this entire site is built on Yii!
There are many good reasons to use Open Source software. Even so, it is always a good idea to have your website developed and backed by reputable and experienced companies.
Low Cost - Most Open Source software is FREE!
Widespread Use - Because of the widespread use of these solutions, there is a large community of developers that can work on your project. Should the day ever come that you would like to work with a different developer, it should be easy to find one.
Modularity - Besides the cost, the best aspect of Open Source software is the modularity. What I mean by this is that most mainstream Open Source softwares have thousands of modules. In addition, OSS is almost always designed to be flexible in order to accommodate community plugins. Dont't be limited to only a few extensions because a developer or company tries to convince you that their personal, exclusive system is the best, because it's not. It would be incredibly presumptuous to assume that a single developer or a small development team is more capable that a community of thousands.
There are only a few negatives that come to mind when I think about Open Source software - most of which are easily remedied by an experienced developer.
Module Quality - Since modules are freely created and distributed, there is no way to know whether or not the developer wrote clean code that will integrate seamlessly with the platform. Despite this, any developer familiar with the platform will be aware of which modules are the best for the purpose.
Support - Unlike proprietary software, Open Source software typically does not come with a support plan; for many users, this means hours of browsing through community forums in order to troubleshoot even menial issues. However, any ethical and experienced developer will offer FREE support for issues that arise due to the software he/she develops.
Licensing - Most users won't have any problems with licensing, however, by using Open Source software, the end user is typically required to use the same license on any branch of that software. With custom applications, however, the customer has purchased the code from the developer, and therefore the customer SHOULD ALWAYS BE allowed to do anything with that software.
Well, that's all I've got for today; I hope you found this post entertaining and I hope to hear back from you!
Tags:
open source, drupal, yii, magento
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Last updated on January 31, 2012
