Splat | WiseTome.com

Cost of Open Source software? Are they not free?

Not actually. Yes, they are free in the sense that they do not cost the licensing fee like the proprietary software out there. They actually cost money, but not in the traditional way. But the Open Source softwares are free - anyone is free to do what they choose with it. They are free to change the code and redistribute it. They are free to use it for their own purposes. For the use and the change of the code, no one is asked to pay anyone anything.

For the past one week, along with my usual write ups here at Splat, KalaaLog and Udantak, I have been also working along with someone to start a community website. As I had worked earlier with Drupal, for WiseTome, it was a natural choice for me to think of using it as a solution. Druapl is an Open Source, Content Management System. Since it is Open Source, I can download it, customize it, and may be code some more custom features, and after that I can use it for the website. I am not required to pay anyone anything. It is free.

Or is it?

If you consider this case, it is actually a special case. My friend knew me, and I knew how to get my hands under the hood of the CMS and get what we wanted. But what if I was not available. What about the numerous others out there, who have ideas and want to start a website? They cannot code themselves, so they will have to hire someone else to customize it. Using Drupal, (or any other CMS), can only give someone, limited functionalities. So, it still costs people to pay for the developers time.

Of course - even other software would require the same. But the fact is that, when people think of ‘free’ Open Source software, they expect everything to be given to them free of cost. It becomes difficult for them to get the notion that there really is no free meal available.

It is not just the one time customization costs that they have to incur. Like other proprietary softwares, they would need to keep spending on constantly upgrading their software and keep up with the newer versions that are released. If they cannot do it themselves - which mostly is the case - it will cost them to get it done.