| Kirk Paul Lafler, Ryan Paul Lafler, Stephen Sloan, Joshua J. Cook |
The open-source world is alive, well and growing in popularity. This paper highlights the many benefits found with open source software (OSS) including its flexibility, agility, talent attraction, and the collaborative power of community; the trends show that open-source is ubiquitous penetrating many critical technologies we depend on, where more technology companies recognize the importance of the open-source community leading to more initiatives and sponsorships that support open-source creators; the challenges of open source including compatibility vulnerability issues, security limitations, intellectual property issues, warranty issues, and inconsistent developer practices; and the opportunities coming out of the open source community including cloud architecture, open standards, and the collaborative nature of community. |