Open Source Software – Part 2, in practice

While open source software is an increasingly viable solution for businesses, it has been used online for a lot longer. Open source software is perfect for use on web sites and intranets and is widely used.

In the first part of this article, we looked at the theory of open source software, how it works, its benefits and drawbacks. In this part, I want to look at open source software in practice on the internet.

If you’ve read a blog, chance are you’ve unwittingly used open source software, if you’ve visited any major web site, there’s a better than even chance you’ve used open source software. Open source software is much more common on the internet than on the desktop at this time.

I thought it useful to highlight some of the online open source software available in different categories to give an indication of what is available and how easy it is to use.

I’m going to look at, in the order they are used by users on the web:

  • Web servers
  • Development languages
  • Content management systems
  • e-Commerce
  • Other software

Web servers

  • Apache - The Apache web server commands a 61% (netcraft.com, October 2006) share of the web server market. It has been around since 1996 and has matured into a flexible, scalable server that caters for all needs from personal site right up to enterprise level. Its nearest competitor, Microsoft’s IIS, has a 31% share. It’s popularity stems partly from its free nature and partly due to its original as a UNIX product that is favoured by technically minded people. These days it runs on almost any platform, Windows, Linux, Mac.

Development languages

  • PHP – PHP is a simple scripting language that has been designed specifically for the web. Its use is common place on a number of major sites. PHP allows developers to provide interactive functionality to site visitors. It is frequently used in creating content management systems that allow non-technical users to create and maintain web sites.

Content management systems

The sheer number of open source content management systems is astounding. The quality of some leaves something to be desired. One of the problems of open source software is that anyone can create a very basic system that suits their name and distribute it. However, it may not suit anyone elses way of working. There is a wide disparity between what is available. Some of the good systems are highly advanced and do rival the commercial options available. Some of the good open source content management systems are:

OpenSourceCMS.com provides a great way to try out all these CMSs and more without any effort.
Blogging is becoming a popular hobby as well as increasingly relevant in the corporate arena. Corporate blogs are a great way for a corporate entity to communicate with its staff or customers and are becoming more common. Some blog software, such as WordPress, like this site is built on, are beginning to cross over into content management system territory.

e-Commerce

Given that online shopping is infringing more and more heavily on high street retail sales, it comes as little surprise that open source software has ventured into this area where numerous retailers are finding themselves in need of the ability to sell online. There are some very advances systems available. One, osCommerce, provides a basic store front with the associated administration functions but whose community provides an additional 3,500 modifications and contributions that you can activate depending on your requirements.

Other software

While content management and blogging are the most popular uses of open source software on the internet, they are far from the only options. Some other popular options include:

  • Discussion boards – allow users to carry out discussions in an open forum
  • Customer support – through helpdesks
  • Online research – online polls, quizzes and in depth survey tools are all available
  • Image galleries – display a collection of images – think holiday photos!

Summary

There is a vast array of open source software that is available to be freely used on your business or personal site. It is usually possible to try before you waste time installing packages so try them all and see which suits you best.

Posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 3:43 pm