Torchlight and Open Source
What are open solutions you ask? Well open solutions are IT solutions built from open source software and platforms. Now I may have just spoke Geek to many of my readers so allow me to go into more detail.
What IS Open Source?
Now imagine this scenario, you are about to buy a new house and there are two neighborhoods. One was designed by your typical housing developers and all the houses are built similar and of course by the same sources. Of course this developer has access to all the blueprints but has no intention of letting you see them. The other neighborhood doesn't have a developer but rather it was built by the community in that neighborhood. There was an supervisor to make sure the houses were being built properly and maintain order of course but the homes were built by the community. They invite you to help build and you can contribute as little or as much as you want. If you want to view the blueprints, the list of vendors, their sources for raw material, you could do so freely. This way, if you wanted to make additions to the house, you could do so with little hassle.No one will fine you either for modifying your house either with this development model. Well this is an example of how open source works.
When we are talking about open source, we are generally talking about software. Source code is the blueprint of software. Modern software that we've all come to know and love such as Microsoft®, Intuit®, and Apple® are what we know as closed source or proprietary software. Closed source software basically holds a philosophy in which the creators own all rights to the software. Because of this, they are the only ones whom hold any rights to build, edit, maintain, distribute, and redistribute the software. With this software, if you purchase it, you don't really own it, you are just "renting" it. Since they own the rights to it, you have to purchase a license allowing you to utilize the software to it's fullest. Of course, these licenses all eventually expire and have to be repurchased.
Now we have open source software. This software is not owned by a single entity or group. Instead it is generally a community project. No one can claim that they "own" the software. Now there are maintainers of the software project to ensure order of the project and take care of all the repsonsibility of the software project. An example would be OpenSuSE Linux, an operating system created by a community of programmers and users but Novell maintains it. They help manage the whole project and take legal responsibility.
Now since no one truly owns the software and it's a community project, anyone under the sun can become involved in the software projects and anyone can benefit from them. Generally speaking, there is no cost to downloading open source software and utilizing it. If there is a cost, it's generally much cheaper than proprietary. Once you get your hands on the software, the sky's the limit as to how you want to use it. If it doesn't work for you, feel free to edit it. There are no true barriers as to how you utilize it's features.
Becuase of this structure, the evolution of the software tends to be quicker than closed source due to the fact that more people are involved and contributing ideas. Also, because of this, problems are easier to diagnose and fix. Any problem you have with open source software, someone from the project can help you. It is also watched more closely than closed source and many bug fixes are released quicker than closed source. It is also less likely to succumb to viruses or other forms of malware.
What are some examples of Open Soure?
Chances are you utilize open source every single day and don't even know it. It's been said that almost 80% of web servers are Apache servers which is an open source project. Mozilla Firefox is also an open source project. Software such as GIMP, Nvu, Inkscape, Audacity, Azerus, and more are all open source projects. One well known one is OpenOffice.org which is an open source office suite that utilizes an open source file format called Open Document. Many firewalls are built using open source tools as well.
One well known Open Source Project is an operating system known as Linux. Now Linux is actually the kernel of the operating system. The kernel is the essential core of any operating system. To get the full operating system, different teams get together and build upon this kernel to get a full operating system. That is why there are many flavors of Linux, all offering their own special features and niches. We call these different version distributions or "distros" for short. To say Linux as a singular concept is incorrect since there are more than one Linux distribution out there (For more on Linux distributions, check out distrowatch).
The Linux kernel runs millions of things out there. From credit card machines, to ATMs, to dairy equipment, you name it. It is commonly used on embedded systems due to it's security, stability, portability, and of course flexibility. Linux is also on a variety of servers so as you surf the internet, you may vary well be using a Linux server. Google® is a well known supporter and user of Open Source technology including Linux so anytime you are using Google, you may be using Linux. Linux and open source are everywhere, just because you don't see it on your desktop, doesn't mean that it's not there.
Whom supports Open Source?
At this point you may be wondering, how do they make money or provide us support if they are doing this all for free. Think of it as a non-profit agency. Their goal isn't necessarily to make software and profit financially from it but rather to make software that is good. Also, sometimes they will charge for the software but it will be a small fee for things such as extra customer support or protection. The projects also get money from gracious donations from other corporations and individuals. Some big contributors to the open source ideology are IBM, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Dell, HP, Intel, AMD and even Microsoft. Not only do they support them financially but on a technological level they help with open source integration.
So what are Open Source Solutions?
Our open source solutions are comprehensive IT solutions built on an open source platform. We take open source software and ideology and help build or rebuild and IT infrastructure around it. This provides you with greater stability and reliability. It also reduces the cost of running IT and the TCO. It is also more flexible to work with enabling us to become innovative with our solutions and build them around YOUR needs.
For a more in depth lesson on open source Click here to learn more.