IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 41

the adoption of OS software are
outlined through the example of
OpenSoftware, a new software
development company. Given that
a rich panoply of applications in
diverse areas are available as OS,
including productivity tools and
other utilities like CD/DVD burning software, it has been possible to
set up OpenSoftware using solely
OS software for its infrastructure,
whether storage, networking or
accounting. OpenSoftware's servers run on Centos, Bind9 is used as
the Domain Name Server (DNS),
Postfix is used for the email server,
Mozilla Thunderbird is used for
email clients, and Compiere is
utilized for accounting and Customer Relationship Management
(CRM). All employee machines
run on Linux, and have LibreOffice
instead of Microsoft Office, and
Mozilla firefox instead of Internet
Explorer.
Some other noteworthy case
studies are: Cendant Travel Distribution Services replaced a $100
million mainframe system with a
$2.5 million system running on 144
Linux servers; Amazon.com cut its
technology expenditure from $71
million to $54 million by switching
to OS applications; Sabre Holdings
saved tens of millions of dollars
by adopting MySQL; IT@School
project [16] saved the Kerala State
Education department 490 million
Indian rupees by using OS software on 50K desktops in schools
across the state; and the Central
Electricity Authority [16] in India
realized 40% reduction in total
cost of ownership by developing an
Information Management System
and an Intranet using OS software.
Although most of the studies mentioned above overlook the training
and transition costs involved in
adopting OS software, such costs
should be comparable to adopting
proprietary software.
from a business perspective,
particularly for business start-ups
like OpenSoftware, the total cost
of ownership [2] matters more than

the software purchase cost. By
eliminating high license costs and
allowing companies to build applications on top of an existing one,
OS software [10] can reduce running cost by at least 80%. Because
OS software [15] is available without the need for licenses, there is
potentially a zero purchase price
and the need to account for copies
in use is eliminated, thus reducing administrative overhead. Other
arguments supporting low total
cost of ownership for OS software
[21]-[23] include longer up-times
and reduced need for expensive
systems administrators, near-zero
vulnerability to viruses eliminating the need for virus checking,
and lower vulnerability to security breaches and hack attacks
thus reducing systems administration load. furthermore, it does not
cost the user anything [11] to try
OS software without making any
commitment.
Not being able to afford proprietary software also leads to
an increase in software piracy
[17], which is not only illegal, but
also prevents users from obtaining security updates and support
services. An OS solution solves
this problem by publishing source
codes. In our example, OpenSoftware has the flexibility to modify
the code [10], [11] of the OS software being used to suit its specific
requirements and add value to its
businesses, while at the same time
maintaining control over the budget spent to tailor the software.
The company can also share the
modified code with the OS community, e.g., using Google code.
This allows other users to learn
the craft by reading the codes [2],
just like an architect would learn
by analyzing the art of others,
and fosters a sustainable environment. Enabling users to develop
skills, advance their knowledge,
and bridge technological gaps
at an acceptable cost is particularly applicable for developing
countries.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2013

Both
61%

Windows
33%

Linux/Other
Open Source
Operating System
6%
Fig. 1. Percentage of users of OS
and proprietary operating system.

Another major cost implication
for businesses is where software
vendors [12], [15] employ a range
of tactics to persuade or force customers to upgrade their software,
e.g., by moving to new file formats or withdrawing support and
bug fixes for older versions after
a short period of time. While OS
software is not a panacea in the
world of ever-changing software,
it solves the vendor-push problem as standards change slowly
and interchange formats are often
particularly stable in the OS community. OS software is not dependent on a single entity and users
can benefit from support from the
OS community, giving users vendor independence [2], [10], [12].
The ability to use software from
any source also provides continuity [10] and interoperability
[11]. These factors relieve users
from the risk of vendors going
out of business, ceasing product
support, or making changes that
leave documents incompatible
with earlier versions. for example, LibreOffice can be used to
manipulate Microsoft documents
while Microsoft Office does not
provide support for LibreOffice documents. It is now widely
accepted that many OS solutions
[2] have as many if not more features than their propriety counterparts and, in some instances, they
perform better.
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