The changing nature of the Software

In this article, we are going to study about the changing nature of the Software and will also study why is it so? By Monika Sharma Last updated : April 04, 2023

Overview

In the early decades when the computer technologies were in an emerging phase, only the development team, authorized persons and the company members had the source code of the software. Due to this, in case of any bug, failure, error or any kind of problem faced, the customer or the user had to approach these people for resolving the error. This maintained the confidentiality of the source code but the main problem for this was that the users were many but the people who were authorized to access the source code for the software were only a few. So, due to this, it was impossible to meet the demands and requirements of each person.

Open-source software (OSS)

So, to solve this issue, the developers started making the software open source. What open source means is that the source code of the program which is developed by a person is provided to all the customers and organizations. So, in case of any problem or errors, the person with knowledge can contribute to the software by resolving it. Also, when the customer feels the need to add some more features to the software or comes up with a new idea for enhancing the existing software, then he/she is free to do so.

Therefore, open-source software can be defined as the software whose source code is available to the customers, users, and organizations.

We can find that most of the software developed nowadays are open source, and this can be seen in almost every field, like Real Time software, Embedded software, Business software, Artificial Intelligence Software, System software, etc.

Advantages of using open-source software

The following are the pros for an open source software,

More number of contributors: As the source code is available to most everyone, hence many of the users can contribute to the software code.
Meeting the customer demands: As there are so many contributors to the software, the requirements for most of its users get fulfilled.
The flexibility of the software: Updates can be made into the software from time to time.
Reliability of the software: Open source software is highly reliable and due to this, so many developers can work on the software helping it to improve.

Disadvantage of using open-source software

Following are the cons of Open Source software,

Confidentiality of the software: By making the software open source, the software loses all its confidentiality.
Security: The security is a big concern in open-source software as it is not developed in a protected environment.

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