Open Source's Killer Features: What Makes Open Source So Popular?

Open source development is fast. In the current age of DevOps and continuous delivery, most software projects strive to push out updates on a frequent basis. But the open source community was ahead of the curve in this respect. Platforms like Linux achieved incredibly rapid release cycles starting early in their history. In some cases, open source development still outpaces that of closed-source platforms today. For example, Microsoft Windows users have to wait years for new releases; most major Linux distributions roll out new versions multiple times a year.

Open source is decentralized. Whether you’re a company or an individual consumer, relying on a single entity for your software needs is not a good thing. If the company that develops a closed-source software platform that you need goes out of business or decides to stop offering the platform, you’re out of luck. This is not the case with open source. Most open source projects are decentralized. They have multiple backers and stakeholders, which mitigates the risk of their disappearing.

Open source can be customized. Between about 1990 and 2010, the world of computing was relatively standardized — compared, at least, to what came before and after. X86 chip architectures dominated and most workloads were hosted using on-premise servers in a consistent way. Today, thanks to developments like IoT and the embrace of complex cloud-based architectures, computing is evolving in the opposite direction, and beginning to look again like it did in the 1960s and 1970s — when there were a range of different hardware profiles and software deployment scenarios. Open source is a great match for this new landscape because open source software is easy to customize. It can be tailored to meet individualized needs.

Open source offers control. We live in a world where software defines almost everything people do. It can be easy to feel like you have little control over the machines and code that more or less run your life. If the software on which you rely is open source, however, you can at least feel some sense of control over it. Even if you don’t actually write open source code yourself, the mere fact that you could read and modify open source software programs if you wanted to provides reassurance that you can still control your own destiny, even as software and computers take over everything we do.

Open source is open to everyone. If you want to join an open source community, the only thing that matters (in most cases, at least) is your ability to write useful code, or contribute in some other way. In general, open source projects care very little about the credentials, professional background or other details of contributors. This makes open source appealing in a way that closed-source software companies can’t match. In addition, open source can be obtained and used by virtually everyone. That is not always the case with closed-source platforms, which are sometimes available only in certain markets or to certain types of users.