The Constructive Nature of Open Source Software

No other industry has managed to democratize itself like information technology. No other industry has opened the doors of individuals from anywhere in the world to participate and contribute like the software industry. Open source is another phrase for access and freedom. It has brought accessibility of enterprise-level software to everyone.

Anyone can solve a problem. Anyone, from anywhere, can be a creator.

By breaking down barriers, open source makes the process constructive, progressive, and inclusive. As more and more people work on the learnings of others, the products become smarter and more productive. Open-source builds upon itself due to the crowd-sourced nature of open tech.

Open makes it competitive.

It has also helped technology become more competitive and forward-looking. Closed systems tend to decay with time, as history has proved time and again. Their caretakers become oblivious to their weaknesses as few can point out the failings. Soon, inertia sets in, and systems lose focus on innovation.

But when it’s open for others to comment, critique, and create, systems become robust and fail-proof. As even the biggest players in tech are realizing, open source has made proprietary tech more competitive than it otherwise would have been.

No need to start from scratch.

By making the process accessible, open source makes it easy for developers. You don’t have to start from zero. People do not have to build technologies just to get to the starting line of making something transformative. You do not have to sweat it out from the beginning.

You only must start from the successes of others. Your journey begins where others’ ends. That makes the process more efficient. There need not be a competition to create alternatives. Enterprise software can be built more easily than ever before by utilizing the starting point of others.

This also gives invaluable experience to those outside the conventional boundaries of technology. Academic, geographical, and professional entry barriers can’t stop you from learning and collaborating. With open technology, anybody can get hands-on experience.

Builds upon itself.

By nature, open-source invites others to contribute. That makes it possible for others to spot problems that the creators may have missed. Licensing agreements have made it such that leveraging open tech and modifying it means you share your work with the rest of the users of that software. This means that you share your work with the world, and then invite others to build on it.  

In other words, innovation becomes an inclusive process. As more people learn the software they use, it makes it easier for anyone to notice vulnerabilities and fix anything if it breaks. Learning from existing software makes it easier to build future software.

Makes proprietary more competitive.

Exclusive systems tend to decay at a faster rate. When there is no competition, lethargy sets in. When there is no one from outside the system to point out the mistakes and execute solutions, platforms lose their agility. Unfortunately, this has been one of the biggest problems with the established firms that rely on proprietary technology.

Open source has introduced competition to an industry that has not needed to compete with itself since proprietary tech has planned obsolescence. The primary reason for that is that proprietary technology only needs to compete with its past features. An iteration only has to improve a legacy feature to make it a new version.

Proprietary technology focuses on periodic updates due to the fear of people cracking their software. The focus is on making it exclusive and limited. And that does not bode well for the product in the long-term. Open technologies are constructive and build on the last feature set to begin with. That too with several people sharing what they have learned.

The idea is not to keep it to themselves. The idea is to learn from and build on what others have created.

Any technology will benefit from open tech. Proprietary tech would not be as good without the competing open tech. Innovation does not come from exclusivity and barriers. It comes from inviting others to work with you. Open source is not mere crowd-sourcing. It is crowd-innovating. That’s what makes it a pillar of the tech industry.