A recent article in Network World shared some interesting statistics and trends about the status of open-source software in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
Namely, that investment in open-source software is going up. As I read through the article, three main points came to mind that I think are highly relevant to his particular crowd.
We’re Fans
This isn’t news. We’ve covered a variety of open-source tools throughout the sites and I know that many of you are hardcore evangelists for open-source products.
I can’t help but find it a little bit funny that, although the Church as a whole seems to stay somewhat behind the mainstream in terms of technology, there’s an entire subculture that is not only aware of what’s available but evangelizes it.
Higher Quality
This struck a chord with me:
When asked which aspects of OSS were very or quite important in their decision to go with the open source solutions, 86 percent of the UK organizations surveyed said open source provided better quality software than proprietary systems, and just 49 percent pointed to the lower total cost of ownership. In the U.S., those figures were 66 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
Personally, I think that there’s a strong case for the reasons that open-source software can have higher quality than the alternative. Often times, I wonder how much a given project suffers because of misplaced motivation, but I digress.
At the core of this, there are not only a number of developers across the globe to contributing to a given project, teams are building a system that’s motivated by genuine passion and desire for an elegant solution to a given problem.
Less Expensive
Obviously, this is a clear win. In fact, lower price – even free – is synonymous with open-source software. After all, you’re typically paying for support, not the solution itself.
But this is significant because I think the Church is forgetting to consider open-source solutions to their problems. I’m not making a case for going full-on open source, but I’m saying that not all software used internally (or even in a live environment) has to run at a high cost.
Open-source, perhaps now more than ever, is a viable alternative.
Kevin says
Awesome!
Just unpacking a few points further:
1) We’re fans because open source values are very similar to Christian values. Helping others in community for the benefit of everyone, not just yourself. These values go hand in hand as we figure out how to be Christians in a modern, technological world. 🙂
2) While full open source is probably out of reach for most organizations from the get-go, just remember than the more you use open source, the easier it becomes because open source usually works better with other open source. For instance, getting on Linux as an operating system opens up a whole new world of available open source possibilities that just aren’t available if you stick with OSX/Windoze. Since most open source developers also use Linux, almost all open source software functions better on Linux too because it’s more well-tested on that platform.
Thanks for the open source evangelism!
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com