Why open-source software is important

What is open-source software?

Open-source software is software that has its source code open to the public so that anyone can view it, suggest changes and make improvements. It is often hosted on platforms designed for the purpose of sharing such as GitHub and GitLab.

With open-source software, users can see exactly what they are downloading and using. This not only gives users peace of mind that nothing malicious is going to be run when the software is used, but this also allows for anyone to collaborate on the code base and suggest changes.

Collaboration with other developers is one of the most important and beneficial aspects of open-source software. Having more eyes on the source code means that bugs can be spotted quicker, and therefore resolved quicker.

It’s not all about fixing bugs though. New feature suggestions and improvements to the codebase can be talked about in an open space, allowing people to add their opinion and suggest changes to ideas that others have raised.

By being involved with open source software, developers become better communicators. There is no way around it, as collaboration is the name of the game, communication follows very closely.

Being able to clearly describe what you intend to fix/change/add and WHY you think it should be done is paramount.

So, if there is open source, then there must be closed source software, right?

Yes. Closed source software is pretty much the exact opposite of open source. It is software that the general public cannot access the source code of. Things like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite are good examples of this, and it makes sense that these products are closed source, as the companies behind them are keen to preserve control over the user experience and their brand.

How we use open source at Steadfast Collective.

At Steadfast, we simply could not do what we do without open-source software. The backbone to a lot of our projects is made up of open-source frameworks, packages and libraries.

For example, we make heavy use of an open-source PHP framework called Laravel. The Laravel framework allows us to start each project with a secure, agile and reliable base to build upon. From there, we can pretty much build whatever we want. Laravel is extremely extensible, meaning if we need some functionality that is not baked into the framework, we can create a new package to fit that gap. 

Of course, these packages are open source too, so we can release them for other developers to make use of and suggest improvements (Read Duncan’s post about some packages we have shipped so far this year).

As a team, we are excited about the future of open source, and what it holds for not only our work lives but for the wider world of technology.