Free Open Source Software
Listed below, you will find the definition of an Open Source Software (OSS) community and the resources involved. Within our menu we have listed just a few of the many OSS communities all producing free software for your business to use.
Why not contact us and Take Life Easy while we join these communities up into your organisation and transition your business over to a free software solution.
Open Source Communities
Open Source Software (OSS) communities comprises of everyone who contributes in creating a software product. This includes software developers who are interested in the product, businesses donating developers to further improve the product because they use it within their organisation, users of the software who want to help it progress and many others who are just passionate about free OSS.
OSS communities are well organised and the production of each software product has the same structure as its commercial equivalent. Depending on the software product, there may be a few hundred to many thousands of people all helping to produce software which is robust, stable and secure. Generally each community includes -
People who have the big ideas, who make the long-term product decisions.
Software LeadersPeople who make the medium-term decisions on each software component.
Developers/ProgrammersThe people who write the code implementing the functionality of the software.
TestersPeople who test the functionality of the software and identify bugs.
Bug FixersAdditional developers which fix any bugs found by the testers.
DocumentersPeople who write manuals such as user, installation and configuration manuals.
DistributorPeople who package up all the software components into a single usable package for people to download and use.
CommunicatorThe people who tell others how good the software product is and encourage others to use it.