The good news is that it really doesn't have to be this way. The open source software approach promises a solution that increases quality while reducing software prices.
WHAT EXACTLY IS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE?.
PROGRAMMERS COMPOSE SOFTWARE INSTRUCTIONS, CALLED SOURCE CODE, in a language that they can understand and write. But after a program is completed, there is no way to see how it was originally written. Software whose source code is made publicly available is termed as open source. This is as opposed to proprietary software, whose source code is kept a company secret. Proponents argue that open source software is either completely free or sold at very low prices, and at the same time improves quality, giving us the best of both worlds.
The concept is rather ingenious: if you can reveal your source code to a world-wide community of developers and allow hundreds of brilliant programmers to improve it, then your software will be much more reliable. Further, since development speed increases and management costs decrease, you can sell your software at extremely low prices and still make good profits.
This paper seeks to argue that the open source approach is better than the traditional software development model. It first explains how the open source approach actually works. It then looks at some key advantages of the open source approach: for customers, for software businesses, and for developing countries. It finally concludes that while there is still work to be done, it is clear that the movement is here to stay.
HOW DOES THE OPEN SOURCE PROCESS WORK?.
The open source development process involves a series of very different phases as compared to the traditional approach. Raymond (1999) describes the process in great detail, stating that one of the most important prerequisites is that the project team offer something tangible and interesting to the developer community to tinker with. In other words, the first step is to build the basic framework of the software.