Imagine spending countless hours crafting essential documents, eye-catching marketing materials, and informative publications for your small business, only to be blindsided when the software you’ve depended on for years is abruptly discontinued. To make matters worse, all your invaluable files are locked in a proprietary format you can no longer access.
That’s exactly what happened to a small business owner I recently encountered. She was shocked and frustrated to discover that the desktop publishing software she had relied on was no longer supported. Years of hard work were effectively trapped in files she couldn’t readily open or edit. Another small business owner I’ve worked with experienced a similar problem.
This week I attended a session at the recently concluded All Things Open, presented by Frank Karlitzchek, the founder of Nextcloud, who argued that the GNU General Public License benefits business. Licensing costs are one area that most people realize when using open-source software. Free software lowers the total cost of ownership. That’s an easy one. Open licenses allow companies to use and modify open-source software freely, which can reduce licensing costs compared to proprietary software. This flexibility lets businesses tailor the software to their specific needs without a significant financial outlay.
It’s good for collaboration too. When everyone uses the same software and the same open formats, it saves time and money. Open-source solutions often scale without expensive proprietary upgrades or licensing fees. This lets businesses grow more cost-effectively by leveraging open-source tools they can adapt as their needs evolve. Despite these advantages, I had never considered one of Frank’s salient points: open-licensed software never dies.
One of my first takeaways when using Linux twenty-five years ago was StarOffice. StarOffice was originally proprietary software created by Star Division and then acquired and open-sourced by Sun Microsystems in 2000. The open-source codebase lived on through OpenOffice, LibreOffice, and other derived suites like Collabora Online.
If my clients had been using LibreOffice Draw, LibreOffice Writer, GIMP, Inkscape, or Scribus, their creations would have been preserved. Unfortunately, proprietary software cannot be modified or forked, so when a vendor ends support for a product, users are left to manage on their own.I
Adopting openly licensed software isn’t just about saving money; it’s about building a more resilient, innovative ecosystem. Embracing open-source tools can lead to better business outcomes in the long run.