Early in its rise of popularity with the Linux platform, open source was equated with geek source – a sort of monster that crawled out of someone’s dark and hardware-cluttered basement. It’s a fact that this is where most open source projects were given birth, but it’s also true that in time, open source has become the best choice for the least technology-oriented users. These are the business owners who know they can’t afford being offline and need a fast and painless answer, or those who are already online but need updates and new features now.
In recent years, the quick evolution of quality open source has spread across all levels of development. From server-side solutions like Apache, all-functional databases like MySQL, robust scripting programming languages like PHP and user-friendly Content Management Systems (CMS) like Joomla, it is hard to step onto the web without getting one’s feet soaked in open source. And forecasters predict this tendency will keep its exponential growth.
According to this year’s Netcraft survey, Apache has been the most popular server software, owning 66% of the market share worldwide. MySQL’s website claims to have over 65,000 downloads per day, and a survey conducted by Evans Data Corporation found its market share at 40% worldwide. Dan Rahmel’s Beginning Joomla! estimates there are 5,000 free and commercial Joomla extensions available, not to mention other CMS like Wordpress and Drupal, both open source and popular. These numbers alone give a good idea of the considerable number of people pushing the open source movement. The highly-regarded and enthusiastic open source communities are alive in participation, feedback, development, and technical support. Every day more and more extensions are added, multiplying the options available for customizing your site. Millions of tutorials, articles, and forum discussions are available for any user to find solutions and find them fast.
How is this relevant to a business who just wants to get their site online? Take an example: developing your business website using a CMS like Joomla can be done in a fraction of the time usually needed, with potentially more security, features and functionality, and getting the added bonus of an administrator of content which ensures you won’t depend on the initial developer to update the information of your site. Furthermore, the CMS communities will continually upgrade the software and create new features which can be installed in the future. The only requirement is to find a development team that knows how to use the CMS framework and has experienced designers and programmers.
At this point you may ask why open-source is not everybody’s top choice. Some businesses need such a specialized solution that current open-source software doesn’t support it. Others simply don’t know about it, though this option is quickly fading with time. Some are already using licensed technology that requires a licensed solution, and changing their current solution for another one is not cost-effective. Yet others are aware of the negative implications of using open-source, such as the possibility of the development community massively migrating to other projects (as happened with the Mambo/Joomla divergence a few years back). Definitely open-source software is not for everyone, but it is the best option for those who are looking for speed and simplicity.
