Prons and Cons of Customizable and open source Systems

[Richard, John]

Dear Colleagues,
I am very excited to present topic about  Customizable and open source Systems.

Open-source is a software development philosophy in which source code is made freely and openly available to the general public. Any interested party can download the code, modify it to their heart’s content, use it how they see fit and, if they wish, distribute their modified version for others to use.

Large amounts of openly available code can make it easier to start developing complex applications. A lot of the heavy lifting has already been done, and development teams just need to tweak (customize) the code for their purposes. Most software, even privately developed programs, are built on at least some code from open-source libraries.

Advantages of Open Source System

·         Free or low cost, open source software cost nothing.

·         Customizable, you can modify and adapt open source system for your own requirements

·         No commitment

·         No license fees

·         Security updates: patching and security updates or upgrades.

Disadvantages of Open Source System

·         Longevity of the project is unpredictable.

·         Fewer functions.

·         Security vulnerabilities.

·         Hosting cost.

·         Hiring and retaining right talent is challenge.

·         Custom Builds May Cost More: Due to the customization mentioned above, extra costs may be required upfront to meld the open-sourced systems into the solution that you require. Typically this is a one-time fee instead of a monthly or yearly cost. For some, this is simply not an option even though they could save big in the long run.

·         Limited Support: In most cases open source solutions offer little to no support unless you are willing to pay for it.

Open Source Software
$0.00

IT Staff
$60,000.00 per year

Hosting
$1200.00 per year

Support Fees
$5,000.00

TOTAL - $66,200.00 or roughly $5,500.00 per month.

 

Even though open source system cost nothing but cost for hiring right talent, hosting and maintenance is higher.

Is it true that Open Source Software are cost effective?

You have found software that seems fit the bill, but how can you sure it’s a right choice?

We know open source systems is made available to public, anyone and everyone, even amateurs could easily design and distribute some malware by embedding malicious code into the original open source distribution.

How can we be sure if open source systems are safe and sound?

As we know most of Experts in African countries are not security conscious are we ready to use Open Source Systems in our countries?

 

Regards,

 

John Richard

Implementation Specialist

PATH Better Immunization Data Initiative

Street:  Njiro, Orelien Estate, Near Sopa Lodge | Arusha Tanzania

Tel:        + 255 22 2122398 | Mobile: 0717520025 / 0684667466  Skype: john.richard644

Web:      www.path.org | www.bidinitiative.org

 

[ronald munjoma]

Hi Richard,

On 30 April 2015 at 11:37, Richard, John <JRic...@path.org> wrote:

Dear Colleagues,
I am very excited to present topic about  Customizable and open source Systems.

​Interesting and important topic especially for low resource settings.​

 

Open-source is a software development philosophy in which source code is made freely and openly available to the general public. Any interested party can download the code, modify it to their heart’s content, use it how they see fit and, if they wish, distribute their modified version for others to use.

​Refereed to as the 4 freedoms.​

 

Large amounts of openly available code can make it easier to start developing complex applications. A lot of the heavy lifting has already been done, and development teams just need to tweak (customize) the code for their purposes.

​In most of may evaluation of free open source software I usually find out that the existing code base cover between 75-80% of the required functionality, leaving  25-30% customization work, much of it might be localisation (changing the terms and field names ...)

Most software, even privately developed programs, are built on at least some code from open-source libraries.

​Free Open source software is around us and we unknowingly use it nearly on a daily basis, most email and web servers servers run ​

 

​on Linux,​

Advantages of Open Source System

·         Free or low cost, open source software cost nothing.

·         Customizable, you can modify and adapt open source system for your own requirements

·         No commitment

·         No license fees

·         Security updates: patching and security updates or upgrades.

​I will add:

No vendor lock in - you can easily move from one open source system to another or to a proprietary system. Data transfer is most likely to be easy due to the use of standard open formats as compared to secretive proprietary standards. ​

 

Disadvantages of Open Source System

·         Longevity of the project is unpredictable.

​Evaluate the project before making a commitment. Look at:

- size of the community: number of active developers and users

- activity on the project mailing list

- last commit and release date

- number of users or software downloads

​

 

·         Fewer functions.

​Some open source software has more functionality as compared to proprietary solutions​, this is a result of developers freely and easily contributing 

 

​back their enhancements to the project. You can also scratch your itch and easily add the missing functionality as part of customization.​

·         Security vulnerabilities.

​Free Open Source software might have fewer security vulnerabilities as compared to closed source - Linus law: "given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow"​

​Once a vulnerability has been discovered it is usually quickly ​patched and its done in an open transparent maner, where as closed software gives a false sense of security.

·         Hosting cost.

​Hosting prices are coming down with providers like Digital ocean and we also have the option to host on premise.​

 

·         Hiring and retaining right talent is challenge.

​Agreed, recruiting, developing and retaining the talent with the right skills to develop, maintain and customise open source software is very difficult especially in low resource settings. ​

 

·         Custom Builds May Cost More: Due to the customization mentioned above, extra costs may be required upfront to meld the open-sourced systems into the solution that you require. Typically this is a one-time fee instead of a monthly or yearly cost. For some, this is simply not an option even though they could save big in the long run.

·         Limited Support: In most cases open source solutions offer little to no support unless you are willing to pay for it.

​You will be surprised by the amount of free support one can get from the mailing list. Some projects have an amazing community which is ready and willing to help out for free on the list or irc.​

 

Open Source Software
$0.00

IT Staff
$60,000.00 per year

Hosting
$1200.00 per year

Support Fees
$5,000.00

TOTAL - $66,200.00 or roughly $5,500.00 per month.

 

Even though open source system cost nothing but cost for hiring right talent, hosting and maintenance is higher.

Is it true that Open Source Software are cost effective?

​When open source implementations are done right they tend to be cost effective. When you want to look at the TCO do it over a 5 or 10 year period and free open source solutions tend to be more cost effective.​

 

You have found software that seems fit the bill, but how can you sure it’s a right choice?

​Test drive it, download and install, run all your business scenarios. Chat with other users of the system, on the forums, irc ...​

 

We know open source systems is made available to public, anyone and everyone, even amateurs could easily design and distribute some malware by embedding malicious code into the original open source distribution.

How can we be sure if open source systems are safe and sound?

- ​If you have the skills go through the code. 

- hire experts and get their opinion on the software.​

- code analysis using available tools: https://www.openhub.net/, http://www.sonarqube.org/, https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Source_Code_Analysis_Tools, http://www.klocwork.com/

As we know most of Experts in African countries are not security conscious are we ready to use Open Source Systems in our countries?

​Yes we are ready and using it.

Here is a list of commonly used open source solutions in Africa (mainly health sector)

- BIKA Health: http://www.bikalabs.org/

- OpenMRS: http://openmrs.org/

- DHIS2: https://www.dhis2.org/

- open data kit: http://opendatakit.org/

- GNU Health: http://health.gnu.org/

- iHRIS: http://www.ihris.org/

- ​CommcareHQ: http://www.commcarehq.org/home/

- Opia Mobile: https://digital-campus.org/oppiamobile/overview/

- Medic Mobile: http://medicmobile.org/

The bulk of the development of the the above solutions is still done by developers outside Africa. I know DHIS2  and OpenMRS are now be actively developed and supported by African developers especially in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda)

Regards

Ronald Munjoma

 

 

Regards,

 

John Richard

Implementation Specialist

PATH Better Immunization Data Initiative

Street:  Njiro, Orelien Estate, Near Sopa Lodge | Arusha Tanzania

Tel:        + 255 22 2122398 | Mobile: 0717520025 / 0684667466  Skype: john.richard644

Web:      www.path.org | www.bidinitiative.org

 

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Best and Regards

Ronald Munjoma

+263 775 625 283, +263 776 444 309

[ronald munjoma]

[Jonathan Jackson]

Hi John - 

Thanks for the interseting topic.  I think there are a lot of different variations of open source and proprietary that make it very hard to list generic advantages/disadvantages.  However, I do think its possible come up with attributes and weight them according to your use case.  CommCare, which Dimagi runs, is both open source and a fully supported Softwre as a Service Product.  We believe strongly (obviously, since that's how we've built our company) that open source software is a great way to create valuable use of ICT  in health systems.  We've also come to strongly believe that cost-efficient support and ability to continually improve and upgrade the value of technology is also critical, and that building systems to not require any dev customizations can sometimes achieve that goal.  In other cases, building on top of an open source framework with customziations may be a better approach. 

However, I think many of the advantages / disadvantages listed do not apply to open source vs. proprietary model, but more about the type of technological and business approach taking by the organization or community trying to support the technology.

Just as an example, if you stood up your own mail server using Apahce's open source code for a mail server and thunderbird as a mail client, it would cost you much more than using gmail, and require more commitment (standing up your own server) and be arguably less customizable in practice (gmail has all sorts of turnkey plugins).

Cheers,

Jonathan  

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[Eduardo Jezierski]

Thanks Jonathan I was going to chime in with similar remarks regarding separating the dimensions that affect evaluations 

These are three things to consider:

- Licensing

- Hosting Options

- Business Model

Also, stating "pros and cons" is from the perspective of a particular project's need. Maybe it helps your purposes to think about characteristics, and let the reader decide if it is a pro or a con. What to one project early on maybe a pro, may become a con when it evolves, and vice versa, or be pro for some users/purposes and con for others. 

A lot of the common goals in the end are about lowering startup barrier to entry, and lowering ongoing expenses, while maximizing local agency and empowerment to meet local needs rapidly and independently.

At InSTEDD we provide hosted services, and also open source and facility for self-hosting, but 90%+ of users including governments end up choosing hosted instances. Many countries prefer to just use hosted instances and focus their resources on doing the effort to meet requirements that makes them unique.  Commonly, in-country groups achieve custom behaviors and add custom user interfaces by writing applications over APIs that give them deep control on the product, while keeping it simple for everyone else.

That is actually what ended up happening in Tanzania's facility registry, and it was the fastest/cheapest/highest ownership sweet spot.

If your topic includes Customizing solutions, here is some material that may help your effort.

hth,

~ ej

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[Mitchell Sundt]

A couple of clarifications that I would add:
-----------
Open Source does not mean that anyone can change the publicly-available code.

There are typically a limited number of people that are trusted and/or vetted to check in changes.  New contributors generally have their code reviewed in detail by one or more people before it is accepted.

While a malicious group could download a copy of the code, insert malware in it, and then sell it or offer it for free from their site, it doesn't mean that the software from the original open-source project has been corrupted. It is just that the end-user has used a derivative of that work that contains the malware. 

This is the same problem as phishing e-mails or URLs that at a glance look legitimate but are not. It is an issue with  vetting the provider of your software (or instructions or information). It is similar to the risks of buying generic products vs. brand label, or listening to con-men.

--------------

Open Source is not free.

There is a cost. If the tools are important to you, you need to engage and participate in the community, and contribute in some way to advance and support the software and community. That always takes time and money.

If you need customization of the open-source software, are you willing to invest the time and effort to contribute those changes back into the open-source project, or are you holding them as proprietary works? This also requires understanding how the open-source project is run, how active it is, and whether the organizers welcome contributions and collaborations. Many don't or are not active.

For most end-users, it does not make sense to hold their modifications as proprietary, but to work to contribute them back to the main code base. Doing this ensures that every change to the main code base will be tested to work with your contributions. It shifts a portion of the burden of support to the community, lessening the need for your group to maintain the code you need.

Often, organizations have an everything-is-proprietary mindset. If your customizations are at the core of the intellectual property of your organization, that makes sense. But if you are using open-source accounting software to run your business and need it to have functionality to export data in a certain format, that capability is not at the core of the intellectual property (core IP) of your organization. In those cases, it makes business sense to contribute the changes back to the community and to allocate a fraction of a developer's time to maintain a presence in that community to ensure that the accounting software evolves in ways that work for your company.

Many open-source projects are backed by companies providing hosting services. Their core IP is hosting. The open-source software is the "loss-leader" that gets you to buy from them.

-------

When an open-source project reaches a certain size, it often switches to a voluntary-donations model, like Wikipedia or Mozilla foundation, the Eclipse foundation, or the Apache foundation. Where users or organizations are asked to donate or pay a minimal fee for the software.

And organizations that believe in open-source model will often hire and form teams to guide and manage an open-source project that is important to them. RedHat hired Linus Torvalds to support Linux. Sun (now Oracle) ran the software team that developed Java.

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Mitch Sundt
Software Engineer
http://www.OpenDataKit.org
University of Washington
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