I attended the
World IT Forum (WITFOR) in Hanoi last month.
I know, I know, doesn’t THAT sound exciting. For the most part I thought they should have renamed it WHATFOR as the whole event seemed to lack direction and purpose.
The idea behind it is really good though – it's all about bringing together developed and developing nations and pooling collective IT brains in order to do some good in the world. Of course there is also a lot of business getting done on the side.
Read more Tech Talk blogs One of the few presentations that I found interesting was by a guy called John 'Maddog' Hall.
I figured in a place where everyone wore pocket protectors, a guy with a nickname that is not out of Star Trek must be ok.
Anyway, Maddog (as he likes to be called – and who am I to argue) was talking about FOSS – Free and Open Source Software.
Now I've got your attention – FREE! – this must be good. Well one of the key points about FOSS is that 'Free' does not mean 'No Charge'.
'Free' means free to own, modify and redistribute the source code. This is in direct opposition to 'proprietary' software. Eg. Microsoft.
Some of the problems of proprietary software include:
Being tied to the fate of a single company Being forced to upgrade even when you don’t have an operational requirement Not being able to make any changes to the system you have Paying annual licensing feesUsing FOSS, you may still be paying for the software upfront, but then you own it – you don’t licence it.
This means that if you want to bring in someone else to support it, you can. If you want to modify it to suit your needs better – you can. If you want to sell those modifications back to the creator of the software – you can.
More and more business users are adopting FOSS solutions and while it is not something that you jump into without thinking, there are savings to be made and often a safer long-term position for your software roadmap.
If you would like more information on FOSS, take a look here.
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