Open Source and Free Software
What is open source software?
Open source software is all about distributing, under a permissive license, the source code of software together with the usual software binaries. Producing software isn’t just the territory of large multinational corporations: thanks to the free distribution of software via the internet a thriving community exists that works together on tens of thousands of different projects.
Aperte is proud to be a part of this community. Aperte is a user, a contributer and a developer of open source software.
For those new with the term “open source” it can be a confusing topic. What can and can’t I do with open source software? What are the differences between licenses? How can I get support for something that is open source? Who can I contact when things go wrong? Aperte has the experience, contacts and know-how to deliver a complete end-to-end solution, from initial advice to development, implementation and deployment and naturally long-term support.
Advantages for the client
- Open source software can be adapted to your particular situation.
- Open source software can be investigated, evaluated and deployed quickly: there is no need to wait months for a vendor to ship a product, no paperwork required to obtain licenses and no contracts to sign beforehand.
- Open source software is robust due to it being developed by a broad community over many years.
- Open source software eliminates vendor-lockin. Other companies, administrators and developers can maintain and extend open source software.
- The usage of open source software is free. You don’t pay for licenses or upgrades.
Give and take
Aperte isn’t merely a passive user of open source software. Both with patches and source code, donations and by generally being a helpful player in the open source community Aperte actively helps a number of projects and products
Naturally it isn’t the case that when you work together with Aperte that your source code is automatically released under a free license. The benefit of releasing source code depends on the project, the more general a solution the more useful it becomes to have others use and develop the source code. If you are interested in how open source software could be used in the context of your organization Aperte is able to give the best advice in your situation.
Advantages for the developing organization
- Modifications of open source software can, depending on the license used, be forced to be distributed together with the modified software. The organization developing the project get improvements to the source code by simply integrating the changes.
- These changes often allow new innovating applications of the project, perhaps even in areas that previously weren’t even considered. Thousands of other people think together with you on how to improve your project.
- Other organizations could ask the developing party for modifications, support and training, thus creating a new source of revenue.
- Freely distributing source code is an ideal way to become known in other organizations. A higher visibility often leads to new relations and opportunities for the developing organization.
What is Aperte working on?
The founder of Aperte is also the founder of Morphix, a Linux Live-CD operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux.
Morphix allows any PC with a CD or DVD drive to run a complete, fully-functional Linux distribution. The main advantage of Morphix is that it is easily modified for specific situations. One example is a kiosk-style CD that automatically starts a web browser with your website. Another example is a modified Morphix CD that can start your specific application or shows a slide-show presentation about a project. These are ideal ways to demonstrate a product in varying situations.
For recent developments and other examples you can take a look on the english weblog alextreme.org.
For a number of concrete examples of what is possible with open source software, see the Aperte projects page.
Recent donations:
Aperte uses a fixed percentage of its revenue to support causes in the free and open source community. We also give out microloans via Kiva.
A number of well-known open source and free software projects
For more information:
- Open Source Initiative
- Or contact Aperte for advice.
