About

 Open Source Platform

Open Source Platform is a premier, daily publication focused on open source and UAV,AI, R&D, Science Project, e-Book  tutorials, stories, and resources.

Open source Platform is developed in a decentralized and collaborative way, relying on peer review and community production. Open source Platform is often cheaper, more flexible, and has more longevity than its proprietary peers because it is developed by communities rather than a single author or company.

Open source has become a movement and a way of working that reaches beyond software production. The open source movement uses the values and decentralized production model of open source Platform to find new ways to solve problems in their communities and industries.

The history of open source is the history of the internet

In the 1950s and 1960s researchers developing early internet technologies and telecommunication network protocols relied on an open and collaborative research environment. The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which would later become the foundation for the modern internet, encouraged peer review and an open feedback process. User groups shared and built upon one another’s source code. Forums helped facilitate conversation and develop standards for open communication and collaboration. By the time of the birth of the internet in the early 1990s, the values of collaboration, peer review, communication, and openness were written into its foundations

What is the Open Source Initiative?

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was created to promote and protect open source software and communities.ii In short, the OSI acts as a central informational and governing repository of open source software. It provides rules and guidelines for how to use and interact with OSS, as well as providing code licensing information, support, definitions, and general community collaboration to help make the use and treatment of open source understandable and ethical.ii

What are the differences between open source and closed source software?

Factors	Open source	Closed source
Price	Available for nominal or zero licensing and usage charges.	Cost varies based upon the scale of the software.
Freedom to customize	Completely customizable but it depends on the open source license. Requires in-house expertise.	Change requests must be made to the company selling the software. This includes bug fixes, features, and enhancements.
User-friendliness	Typically less user-friendly, but it can depend on the goals of the project and those maintaining it.	Typically more user-friendly. As a for-profit product, adoptability and user experience are often key considerations.
After-sales support	Some very popular pieces of open source software (e.g., OSS distributed by Red Hat or SUSE) have plenty of support. Otherwise, users can find help through user forums and mailing lists.	Dedicated support teams are in place. The level of service available depends on the service-level agreement (SLA).
Security	Source code is open for review by anyone and everyone. There is a widespread theory that more eyes on the code makes it harder for bugs to survive. However, security bugs and flaws may still exist and pose significant risk.	The company distributing the software (i.e., software owner) guarantees a certain level of support, depending on the terms of the SLA. Because the source code is closed for review, there can be security issues. If issues are found, the software distributor is responsible for fixing them.
Vendor lock-in	No vendor lock-in due to the associated cost. Integration into systems may create technical dependency.	In most cases, large investments are made in proprietary software. Switching to a different vendor or to an open source solution can be costly.
Stability	This will depend on the current user base, the parties maintaining the software, and the number of years in the market.	Older, market-based solutions are more stable. New products have similar challenges as open source products. If a distributor discontinues an application, the customer may be out of luck.
Popularity	Some open source solutions are very popular and are even market leaders (e.g., Linux, Apache).	In some industries, proprietary software is more popular, especially if it has been in the market for many years.
Total cost of ownership (TCO)	TCO is lower and upfront due to minimal or no usage cost, and depends on the level of maintenance required.	TCO is much higher and depends on the size of the user base.
Community participation	The community participating in development, review, critique, and enhancement of the software is the essence of open source.	Closed community.
Interoperability with other open source software	This will depend on the level of maintenance and goals of the group, but it is typically better than closed source software.	This will depend on the development standards.
Tax calculation	Difficult due to undefined monetary value.	Definite.
Enhancements or new features	Can be developed by the user if needed.	Request must be made to the software owner.
Suitability for production environment	OSS might not be technically well-designed or tested in a large-scale production environment.	Most proprietary software goes through multiple rounds of testing. However, things can still go wrong when deployed in a production environment.
­Financial institution considerations	The financial industry tends to avoid open source solutions. If used, a vetting process must take place.	Financial institutions prefer proprietary software.
Warranty	No warranty available.	Best for companies with security policies requiring a warranty and liability indemnity.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of open source software?

Advantages

• Open source software is free.
• Open source is flexible; developers can examine how the code works and freely make changes to dysfunctional or problematic aspects of the application to better fit their unique needs.
• Open source is stable; the source code is publicly distributed, so users can depend on it for their long-term projects since they know that the code’s creators cannot simply discontinue the project or let it fall into disrepair.
• Open source fosters ingenuity; programmers can use pre-existing code to improve the software and even come up with their own innovations.
• Open source comes with a built-in community that continuously modifies and improves the source code.
• Open source provides great learning opportunities for new programmers.v

Disadvantages

• Open source can be harder to use and adopt due to difficulty setting it up and the lack of friendly user interfaces.
• Open source can pose compatibility issues. When attempting to program proprietary hardware with OSS, there is often a need for specialized drivers that are typically only available from the hardware manufacturer.  
• Open source software can pose liability issues. Unlike commercial software, which is fully controlled by the vendor, open source rarely contains any warranty, liability, or infringement indemnity protection. This leaves the consumer of the OSS responsible for maintaining compliance with legal obligations.
• Open source can incur unexpected costs in training users, importing data, and setting up required hardware.vi