Solve copyright cost problems with open source software

Want to develop open source software into an effective tool to reduce software cost burden, promote IT application, the first thing to do is assess the nature of the problems that will face when developing. wide area.

OSS has matured

Unlike commercial software, OSS goes up thanks to the contribution of the community. After a long period of "slow and steady" progress, it has become a balanced counterweight to traditional software. Some free products even proved superior.

A SurveyWare.com survey found that 64.17% of respondents said they liked Mozilla FireFox browser more than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Lenovo (China) recently announced that it will pre-install the Linux operating system on its computers, including high-end ThinkPad laptops.

The development of open source software made both Microsoft giant, one of the iconic "strongholds" for commercial software business, recently announced "will take actions to be compatible with the OSS environment".

From a user perspective, the fundamental difference of OSS with commercial software products is that they are downloaded for free use. That is also the reason why OSS has been mentioned a lot in Vietnam recently, especially since the Government promoted its commitments on software piracy.

The price of hundreds of dollars of the Windows operating system and the familiar MS Office suite becomes too "heavy" for the average user's budget or agencies. Open source software is the solution chosen by many State agencies and organizations to solve software copyright issues while not being able to proactively source funding.

In September 2007, the Party Central Office Informatics Center said that all 20,000 computers of Party agencies across the country will use Open Office software. This transformation is made into a specific task in the Project of Computerization of Party agencies' activities in the 2006-2010 period.

OSS is parallel to commercial software

Linux operating system gradually appears in the mobile computing environment.Photo: Laptop review .

Over time, the open source community built almost all applications on computers, from operating systems, web servers, office applications, Internet browsing, graphics software, games . With those In particular, OSS and commercial software (PMTM) together exist and develop as two choices for users. Both compete but do not overlap.

This is an inevitable trend in the development process of the software industry. So many technology giants like Sun, IBM . strongly support the new direction that at first glance does not generate revenue.

" Unlike commercial software, PMNM products make money from operating services, not the cost of buying a license ," said Nguyen Long, General Secretary of Vietnam Computer Association. According to Mr. Long, to see more clearly the effects of open source software should divide the software "world" into each field: system software installed on the server, enterprise environment software and software for end users.

In particular, the software installed on the server is almost "mecca" of open source software. As of August 2007, the Apache operating system is used to operate half (50.61%) of the global website. Unix and Linux operating systems still dominate the server. The OSS and commercial software correlation proved more balanced in the enterprise environment. The simple reason is that valuable ERP and CRM projects are mainly in the skills and consulting level of the project implementers, not the software itself.

Talking to VietNamNet , TS. Bui The Duy, lecturer of the University of Technology - Hanoi National University, said the operating costs include technical services, support, training and system customization for very open source server systems. high. Besides, it is a waste of time and effort to test applications. Statistics of computer experts show that large Linux systems (RedHat, Fedora, Debian .) need 25-40% more support than Windows or Unix. In addition, the average expert Linux service price is 40% higher than that of Windows or Unix colleagues.
In contrast, end-user software is still where commercial software "hurts". Partly because the money earned from this product group is not as attractive as the "floors" above. However, this is the key to open source software to the masses and software such as Open Office, Star Office has become an effective tool to combat software piracy. In the words of "FOSS" fans, they are free to choose when to pay for the services they are enjoying.

Solving software piracy problems

After many years of development, although open source software is downloaded for free use, but losing products still develop continuously without any sign of decline. That proves that commercial products have their own strengths and open source software still has weaknesses that exist. With the selection of software deployed in enterprises, organizations, PhD. Bui The Duy said that this should really assess based on the actual situation of the unit based on the factors: needs, qualifications, funding and scale. For units where most computers use simple office operations, OSS is the first choice to reduce initial costs.

In Vietnam, the Open Office suite is most mentioned because this is the "best replacement" solution for MS Office. EWeek (USA) has a thorough survey of capabilities, compatibility and training requirements with 300 MS Office users switching to Open Office (OpenOffice.Org), an open-source office suite is considered to be the most comprehensive today with the backing of many technology giants.

The results show that basic users easily adapt to Open Office. The software suite is fully functional, the interface is not much different. They even have some outstanding improvements such as direct PDF export, open all file formats with a single window, QuickStarter feature that resides in the system tray, screen intuitive slide arrangement .

Along the same slide, the curve shown on Open Office Impress (left) looks much thinner
compared to MS PowerPoint (right).(Screenshots)

However, professional users still find the Microsoft product suite more powerful, especially Excel spreadsheets. The interface of MS Office is judged more subtly with highly customizable, highly intuitive drag and drop buttons. In terms of implementation, Write (Open Office) is more complicated than Word (MS Office) when handling large documents and documents with many complex formats. Impress images are also rougher than Power Point.

" Some features that are removed or missing such as page format (Page Style) on Write will confuse users. Text files use the TCVN3 code set popular in state agencies when opened on Open Office 2.2. error 'u' changes to a '-' To fix this, users are required to convert all TCVN3 documents to Unicode code Small applications such as accounting, warehouse management, human resource management developed on MS Access or not available with Open Office Base, "said Nguyen Hoang Huy, a member of the open source community VietLUG.

How to develop OSS?

Dr. Bui The Duy said that Open Office is suitable for wide area deployment. However, opportunities for this software in particular, or OSS in general are in the ability to build the community of users. More specifically, create more opportunities for users to participate in this playground. Specifically, it is accounting software, warehouse management, personnel management, . running on Linux, a team of experts, documentation on how to select and research open source software from a user perspective.

" Implementing open source software seriously needs to prepare a lot of things and time to experiment carefully. Experience shows that successful organizations with open source software often have an elite technical team to solve technical problems themselves. For maintenance and training, for organizations that do not have their own informatics team or require standardization in business processes, buying commercial software is sometimes cheaper than open source software, "Mr. Duy concluded.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, General Director of FPT Software Company (FSoft), said: The real advantage of OSS is not cheap. The real and long-term benefits of OSS in countries like Vietnam are that they will become counterweight to expensive products.

" Microsoft has to build a branch in China with a model that is no different from a headquarters in the US. They have to reduce Windows prices, airing Office for this market. Simply because this is the only market that Microsoft's piece of cake. decreased due to the rise of operating system like Hong Ky, "Mr. Nam said. " The operating system itself may not be as good as Windows, but it has the pressure to create incentives for Chinese users ."

These reasons put the development of open source software into the Government's strategy of software technology development with the aim of "increasing technology autonomy, reducing dependence".