Open Source and Closed Source

Essay by sputnik1616University, Bachelor'sB, September 2014

download word file, 2 pages 0.0

Open Source Vs Closed Source

Open source has all the codes available for the users and developers, it even allows developers to add their own code to make the software better, more functional, and generally easier to use or it can be modified for their own purpose. Who doesn't love the promise of "FREE" and when the charm of the codes in the program is available? As it says "Free" meaning nobody is paid for it however there are generous people who contribute to the development. Cardinal example of Open Source is Linux, Virtual Box, VLC media player, Mozilla Firefox.

In Open source the unlimited development gives broad support to the developer as anyone can change the codes.

The open source nature constituents to the transparency of the codes. As the codes are freely available, it appeals to the thousands of developers worldwide to fix the bugs and vulnerabilities. One can even verify their work by checking the codes after the release. The security of Open source is debatable. Some may argue the source codes are open and It goes through a lot of screening and gets fixed often. However, the developers who use the open source would have no clue when the vulnerabilities were discovered in the product they use. The fixes are available within hours, Thanks to the generous contributors. The big issue is no one is in charge of discovering such vulnerabilities. The other drawback relating to the Open source is there is often no official authority to review the codes or Quality assurance. By the...