9 Reasons To Use Open-Source Software For Hobbyists

Of course, you can download a crack or pirated version of all most any software, so why to care about open source software, or why to consider purchasing a license?

Well, but isn’t it unethical? Yes, many of you can’t afford to purchase licenses of all expensive products you need. But there is a good and ethical way to get your work done for free. There are many free and open source software available using them you really can create quality content and
give your project very professional touch.

What is open source?

Open Source doesn't mean free of cost, it is free as freedom. You are free to do many things which you are not allowed to do with proprietary ones.

So, Open Source software refers to the software for which the source code design is freely accessible to the public, and anyone can modify and redistribute them.

Most of the time they are free to use. If not free, they generally cost less than commonly used paid software, and you have access to its source code.

Reasons to use Open Source:

      1.     They are free :

Only the first reason which alone can make you want to use open-source is they are completely free. Well, most of the time. Yes I know that is what you exactly want, don’t you?

Though they sometimes ask for a donation. That is how they continue serving many people who don’t afford the paid one. The money is used for servers, bandwidth, sometimes for hardware for testing software against bugs.

      2.     As good as paid software:

Les Miserables - Tago

There are many open source software, they are as good as there paid counterparts. Even some are better than paid ones. Don’t you believe me? See Android, see Ubuntu, Mozilla Firefox, VLC player to name a few.

The painting on the right side(click on the picture to view larger image) is done on Krita, a great open source painting software.

So, certainly, you don’t have to compromise with quality.

      3.     Freedom and Flexibility:

You really have very less or no restriction from the vendors regarding Terms and Conditions, and policies, vision or timeline. You can migrate to another new service anytime if you need to.

You get to access the source code, add features, modify the code according to your need and fix the code yourself. 

     4.     Security:

Today open source are pretty much secure than it was before. This has to do with the transparency of source code. As more people are open to see, test the code, any flaws or bugs are likely to be discovered and fixed quickly.

      5.     Very robust design:

Developers in Open Source software industry favour robust design rather than a number of overwhelming visible features. Where paid software companies are interested in making as many fancy features as possible to attract their potential client over stability, security and other less glamorous features.

 

      6.     Transparency:

You can join their development team anytime and have the right to know anything about the software, which other software company certainly doesn’t allow. For closed source, you have nothing but the company’s claim that a product is how much secure, where in the case of open source you have the access to source code where you literally can see everything yourself (provide you have knowledge in coding), do not have to rely on vendor’s claim.

     7.     You have the opportunity to support developers and help many people:

Many open source projects are not backed by corporations, they are labours of love and passion for involving in technological advancement. So most open source software project need volunteers. You can help them many ways you can help, writing codes, checking or testing or fixing bugs, donating money to carry out the project, help others by answering their question in the forum, help with graphics and UI design and many other ways.

Spending your time and effort also has its own perks, which leads to the next point

     8.     Learn by doing:

By helping them you get experience in developing software, you are exposed to more practical knowledge, you get recognition in your peers if you are well involved. The experience is valuable in your resume if you are a software engineer.

     9.     Make money:

There are many good open source software which are lesser known. You can educate people about those software. You may write a blog or run a YouTube channel teaching people about those software, make a good tutorial. In turn, you can have an income from advertisements on your blog or YouTube channel.

Even you get freebies by helping developers, for e.g. VLC provides hardware for testing alpha or beta version of a software, against bugs.

Support the open-source software movement instead of supporting illegal activities like downloading pirated software.

So if you can’t afford a paid software do not worry, try to find some free alternatives, this blog is to find that out for you. Just keep up on checking this blog regularly.

Comment below what you think about the post and let me know if I have missed out some important points.

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