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Using Free and Open Source Software in Your Small Business

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Using Free and Open Source Software in Your Small Business USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS MARCH 2015 Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................3 What is free and open-source software?....................................................................3 What about support?..............................................................................................3 How does this compare with proprietary paid-for software?........................................3 Open source alternatives to proprietary software products.........................................4 Ubuntu - a free desktop operating system........................................................................................4 LibreOffice - a free office productivity suite.......................................................................................5 Software Asset Management and legal risk...............................................................6 Conclusion............................................................................................................7 For more information..............................................................................................7 USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS 2 Introduction In this document we will look at the benefits that using free and open source software can bring to your small to medium-sized business or startup. What is free and open-source software? Software that is "free and open source" may be freely installed, used, copied and distributed. There is no initial fee for purchase or download, nor are there any on-going fees for continued use: in other words, there is zero cost. You may use the software at work or home as much as you like without restriction. Additionally, free and open source software may be freely modified or changed. If there are custom features in an application which you would like to see, a software developer can have unrestricted access to the application's code and make the necessary changes. Using free and open source software, your business can perform practically every common office computing task needed, all for zero initial cost. What about support? Using free software does not automatically mean "no support". By partnering with a professional open source services company, businesses can benefit from paid support and training as and when required. This truly enables a "best of all worlds" scenario of low costs, superior products, and the safety net of professional support when you need it. How does this compare with proprietary paid-for software? Proprietary software typically has a cost attached. This can range from an upfront fee for an initial purchase, to ongoing monthly subscription costs for continued use, all the way up to millions of dollars per year for large companies with many employees. You are not free to use the software where you like, nor are you allowed to freely make copies. Typically there are strict software licensing agreements that you must adhere to when using the software. Legally, you do not own the software you have paid money for, rather you have paid for a license to use it with strict conditions attached. If you have ever used Microsoft Office for example, then you will know that under the terms of the software license you are not permitted to freely install the software on all of your friends' computers. If you want to install the software on more computers than you are licensed for, then you need to pay Microsoft additional money (on top of the initial purchase cost) to do this. USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS 3 If there are bugs in the software you have paid for, then you are solely dependent on the company that produced the software to fix them. It is unfortunately common practice for large software vendors to release new versions of paid applications with bug fixes included, rather than fix existing bugs in the applications you have already paid to use. To take advantage of bug fixes you must pay more money to upgrade your software. This is a form of the practice known as vendor lock-in. Additionally, a software developer can't simply examine the code and fix the bugs for you, nor implement any new features - as modification of the code is not permitted by the company under the terms of the license. Even for your small business or start up, the cost of using proprietary software can easily run to thousands of dollars in license fees alone. Open source alternatives to proprietary software products The unique nature of open source development means that innovative features can be introduced into free software products much more rapidly than their proprietary counterparts. Additionally, open source products tend to be more stable and secure due to wide-spread, in-the-field testing. If you've only ever used (for example) Microsoft Windows as your business computing platform, you'll be delighted at the sheer number of enhancements, and improved speed and security present in free alternatives. Let's highlight two such open source products. First, a superior alternative to Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X, followed by an office productivity software alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Drive. Both are zero-cost, and come packed with features you won't find anywhere else. Ubuntu - a free desktop operating system Your work and home desktop and laptop computers run an operating system ("OS") which supports the applications and services you use (for example, word processing and web browsing) and the devices you connect to (for example, printers and broadband modems). For many people the OS they are most familiar with is Microsoft Windows. For others, the OS of choice is Apple Mac OS X. The Ubuntu OS is a beautiful, professional-grade desktop operating system equivalent to Windows or OS X. Virtually any common office task staff would perform using Windows or OS X is supported on Ubuntu, with equivalent or better performance, security, and stability. USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS 4 Figure 1 The Ubuntu Software Center app store Read more about Ubuntu in our PDF whitepaper: www.apertura.co.nz/whitepapers/APUbuntu.pdf LibreOffice - a free office productivity suite LibreOffice is one of the most highly-regarded office productivity suites available at any price, and it is positioned as a direct competitor to both the Microsoft Office and Google Drive proprietary office bundles. LibreOffice's feature set and cost is so compelling that major organisations such as the entire UK government are migrating from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.1 For each application in the standard Microsoft Office bundle (for example), there is an equivalent application available in LibreOffice. Microsoft Word is matched by LibreOffice Writer, Microsoft Excel is covered by LibreOffice Calc, and the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation application has its equivalent in LibreOffice Impress. You'll also find features in LibreOffice you won't find elsewhere, such as full editable PDF support.2 1 www.apertura.co.nz/ukopenstandards 2 www.apertura.co.nz/hybridpdf USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS 5 Figure 2 LibreOffice 4.4 Read more about LibreOffice in our PDF whitepaper: www.apertura.co.nz/whitepapers/APLibreOffice.pdf Software Asset Management and legal risk Much like the management of IT hardware assets should be standard business practice, the management of computer software assets should also be taken into account as part of a general asset management plan. Software Asset Management is a method for reducing the legal risk of non-compliance with business software licensing agreements. Commercial software vendors can audit your business to ensure that you are complying with the original license terms of the software you have purchased (often through enforcement agencies such as the Business Software Alliance3). A business could be non- compliant if an application like Microsoft Office has been installed on more computers than the license you paid for allows, or if an employee or contractor has obtained an illegal copy of an application and is using it for commercial purposes at work. 3 Business Software Alliance (BSA) homepage: www.bsa.org USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS 6 Attractively-priced "home" editions of Microsoft Office are generally expressly prohibited for business use, but the licensing small type often does not make this clear. If a business (of any size) has been abusing the terms of their software license agreements (either deliberately or inadvertently), commercial vendors can extract punitive damages - even through a civil court action if necessary. Quite aside from the extreme costs that can be incurred (running from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars), the stigma of any business receiving bad publicity through a successful enforcement can be hugely damaging.4 Although this may seem like a trivial task to plan for, the reality is that even for small to medium-sized businesses managing multiple software licenses across many computers is a time-consuming and complex process. Using free and open source software, and reducing the dependence on proprietary software (or eliminating its use outright) can play a highly effective part in managing your risk of legal exposure arising from licensing non-compliance. Although you cannot simply ignore an audit notice from an organisation such as the Business Software Alliance, you can radically reduce the time and
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