Once in the right relationship, all your energy becomes focused on that single goal, and you don’t mind turning down other activities because they all contribute to it.
The software presents many challenging choices: should you opt for open-source or licensed programs?
Cost
One primary difference between open source software (OSS) and proprietary software (PLS) is cost. While OSS may be free, extra services or support might incur fees.
Opting for proprietary software is more costly, yet it can provide advanced features and greater functionality out of the box. Your choice between these options should depend heavily on your budget and project requirements.
Edward Y. Liu (ElecE 1T9), this year’s winner of the APS105 Showdown competition at UC Berkeley, hailed from its first-year computer programming course and was selected as one of eight finalists in this year’s contest to develop programs to solve Reversi—specifically, an algorithm that computed optimal moves. The winner program provided an algorithm that calculated optimal plays based on particular situations.
Reliability
Open source software offers maximum flexibility but can come at the price of risk and lack of support, which could prove costly for business users requiring security and meeting service level agreements (SLAs). Furthermore, no online communities exist to help solve complex errors that arise using open source software – something Coinbase found out firsthand after experiencing a major outage due to an issue in their OSS – it took them hours before getting their services back online again.
It’s up to you to evaluate these risks against your personal and professional requirements.
Support
Open-source programs provide maximum flexibility. However, many business users prefer more turnkey solutions; they want a program that works out of the box with professional-level support and SLAs they can rely on – which explains why paid programs tend to outshine them all in popularity.
But as Coinbase’s outage shows, paid solutions come with their challenges: complex errors can arise that you cannot resolve via Google or an online community; big tech companies that produce these programs typically don’t share their best technology with other users; in addition, they tend to invest more money and team members into them than many open source projects do. Which solution is right for your business? That depends entirely on its needs and requirements: open source may offer more utility compared to its costs, security risks, and support requirements than licensed alternatives; otherwise, licensed software might provide better options.