Week4-4dq4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week4-4dq4 - Essay Example There are different schools of thought on the subject. Some people feel that Open Source is actually much more dependable than conventional software, in that with more developers involved in it, there is a better chance for more perfect software. However, Gacek (2004) reports that is a fallacy and stereotype in of itself. In addition, she argues that another perceived problem is most Open Source is conceived by some hacker and it was usually mostly available for generally unpopular platforms such as Linux. The truth is, even at the time of her writing, only six years after Open Source came to be, many businesses actually employ software people to develop OS code. Moreover, since the paper, Windows based OS has overtaken Linux. One would probably say Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping Open Source off the software market. So it was interesting that one of the company’s chief engineers gave an interview with the BBC in 2006 (Marson), in which he stated that although OS has its place in society, most people consider the products substandard as compared to commercial software such as his company’s products. One of the most popular and prolific OS products today is Mozilla’s Firefox browser, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, with Google’s Chrome. In a side by side comparison of the two (Smith 2011), Firefox won handily in Appearance, Interface and Add ons. For the other categories, such as reliability, performance and industry standard IE and Firefox tied. IE did not win in any category. Therefore, it appears that the engineer’s remarks are wrong and today OS can be as dependable as commercial. As with any other venture, software projects have myriad of risks associated with them. Done right and the project team will be the darling of the company. However, if they fail, not only is it embarrassing but said failure could very well result in career loss. So for the purposes of