About open-source and Free Software

For those interested in what drives the ideas of Pragmagik, a short introduction to the Free Software and open-source ideas and movements.

Free Software

'Free Software' is a term used for software that is released under a specific type of license, that states that the licensed software can be used for any purpose (including modification, distribution, and even to sell), as long as the license and copyright notice remain in tact. If a piece of software is released under such a license, the 'source code' (the human-readable text that contains the commands that form the program) is always distributed along with the program, and anyone is allowed to use this code and do with it whatever they want - with the restriction that the result, when distributed, has to have the source code distributed along with it, and has to allow others to make modifications etc. in a similar manner. This makes that once a piece of software is released under this license, it is not only 'free' (as in freedom, not as in beer) to use now, but is guaranteed to stay free, and derivatives of it will be free too.

So, why would you do that?

Even though it may seem silly to give away your code, there are certain very strong advantages to using a free software license, especially from a customer's point of view:

Vendor lock-in

The most important advantage is probably that it prevents situations of 'vendor lock-in': if the source code is not available, or the only person that has the right to modify the code is the vendor, this vendor has absolute control over the software. If you buy a license to use the software, the vendor might go out of business, or change strategies in ways that are unbenificial to you, which may be disastrous if your company relies on the software. Use of a free software license guarantees that if something happens to the original vendor, a new developer can pick up the code and continue maintenance and development.

Competition

Another benefit for the customer is that since the source code is available, and anyone is free to modify it, the customer is free to find developers that provide better services and/or prices, rather than having to stick with the company they chose at first.

Re-usability

Of course, there's still the aspect of 'giving away' your code... This may be percieved as a disadvantage, but because of the restrictions in the licenses it's impossible for people to just 'run off with your code': if they do any release of your code with modifications, you can use them too. In other words: if Pragmagik releases a piece of software under a free software license, any changes made by other (competitive) companies or developers can in turn be re-used by Pragmagik.

Trust

Another important thing these licenses offer is a base of trust between the developers and customers: since free software development is by nature a more open process than 'closed source' development, relations between developer and customer are usually good. Also, since the code is readable, chances of it having unwanted back-doors are small to non-existent.

Of course there's also a certain 'doing good' feel to it, which may or may not be relevant, depending on your taste... :)

Open-Source

Open-source is a name given to a set of ideas that differs from Free Software to remove some extremities. Since the Free Software movement alienated some people by being very religious in promoting their ideas, the term 'open-source' became more common to refer to software licenses that provide the open-ness of free software (allowing others to read and use their source code), although traditionally open-source licenses remove the free software restrictions. This means that open-source does allow people to 'take your code and run', since the licenses do not force derivates to be released under the same license as that of your code, but because of the more pragmatic ways the ideas were offered, 'open-source' has become a more accepted term among commercial businesses, and nowadays often refers to free software too.

Pragmagik's philosophy

Even though we strongly believe in the ideas of the free software movement, and we try to support and stimulate them as much as possible, our attitude is very pragmatic. We like to work closely with customers, and care for long-term relationships, and consider free software licenses a good tool to achieve these goals. Also, we think that the communities are excellent breeding grounds for good, healthy software projects, and due to their distributed nature ideal for developing and testing new methodologies and techniques for software development.

We hope that customers choose to make the code we write for them available under an open-source license, and have adjusted rates when they do, but this is because of practical reasons rather than principles. Our task is to inform customers about opportunities and guide them in finding the right solution for their needs, without becoming religious. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the side-effect of giving people free software, and stimulating creativity and technological development by sharing our work certainly is an additional incentive, but for Pragmagik it's not the main reason to choose a free software or open-source license for a project - for us having customer relationships built on trust and openness (and knowing that our code will always be available to us) is far more important.