Java Reference
In-Depth Information
immediately eliminate the large expense and increase the
install base without incurring additional expenses. Other
financial benefits can be realized as well. Because Open
Source is free to copy, the expense of license management
isn't incurred. In addition, legal departments only have to
review and approve an Open Source license once for all
projects using that license rather than each time for each
commercial product license. Using popular Open Source
projects can reduce training expenses by providing a larger
resource pool. Developers can be hired from outside the
company with existing knowledge of Open Source
frameworks. It's often difficult to hire developers that have
knowledge of a proprietary commercial framework. Industry
support is another reason to consider Open Source. Many
major companies such as IBM, Sun, Oracle, BEA, and
Borland are using Open Source projects. These organizations
have a vested interest in the project's success because their
products rely on the framework. Contributors to the Java
Open Source projects aren't necessarily the independent
programmers writing code in their spare time anymore.
Many of these large companies have departments dedicated to
Open Source. In addition, many of the Open Source projects
such as Eclipse, NetBeans, and Tomcat were initially donated
by large corporate backers. Consider the use of Open Source
as a means of expanding your development team to include
some of the best resources from all around the world. Access
to the source is an important advantage of Open Source. The
source code is the only 100 percent-accurate documentation.
JavaDocs, marketing material, architectural diagrams, and
instructions often aren't kept up to date.
