Is it your car?

When you last checked the water or added a little oil to your car did you find that there's a cover over the engine itself? Did you remember back in the day when you could see the spark plugs? As engine technology has got more complicated, manufacturers have started to moved towards a more closed view of the world.  Gone are the days that the average fella, and perhaps a few girls too, would spend Sunday afternoon under the bonnet trying to squeeze a few extra horsepower from the engine armed only with a rusty spanner or two.  Is it really your car or do you have a licence to use it but the tinkering gets done by expensive trained professionals with you behind a glass screen.

Your technology belongs to you!

Your desktop PC, with the partial exception of Apple computers (and laptops) say, are not usually like that.  The reverse is happening: manufacturers are producing standardised components to an increasing extent.  These items tend to obey the standards agreed by everyone with an interest; non-standard kit doesn't sell as well unless it becomes a commodity e.g. the iPod. Most people like to use this technology as it is.

When a computer starts to get 'slow' adding more memory or replacing the main chip for a faster one is relatively easy for most people and gives your computer a new lease of life. If the disk drive breaks, replacing it is as easy as a plug and a couple of screws. In reality software gets more complicated which begins to overwhelm the specification you made a couple of years back and you can buy a disk drive from many manufacturers.

What about the software?

Software companies which produce Operating Systems like Microsoft Windows or the Apple OS x need to make it easy for people to write software for their products. They can't produce everything that is demanded by themselves. They provide details of how to talk to their product on a surface level so that people can write software for it, like games.

Without using a very detailed analysis, which is usually forbidden by the licence agreement, how it does its job internally is hidden. You don't know if it obeys the standards internally.

More to the point: if it doesn't do what it is supposed to do, you won't know why; you'll be told that there's a service pack coming sometime. Did you know that mobile phones can have their software upgraded whilst you wait? Most of us don't keep our mobiles long enough to have them upgraded.

Closed software isn't helpful. You have to buy it, the initial charge, and then you have to pay to keep it maintained regularly too.

What if software were open too?

What if there were regular updates or fixes for your software on an almost daily basis? What if these were tested by millions of people, rather than just a few, before it was marked as having resolved an issue or made an improvement?

These can be installed by novices without help, and if you need help there are thousands of people willing to help you on-line without charge, not a premium rate telephone number.

Well it can be.

It's called Open Source. It uses Standards. If you're so inclined you can see how it works internally.

There is usually no purchase price; some companies have a free version and a more commercial version too, but it's usually the same software.

but the strangest thing?

You're already relying on it.

You may have already dismissed Open Source as being difficult, hard to use, geeks only. Said "No support structure, no central place to call."?

Apples OSX? Open Source core. BT home hub? Based on Open Source (but not properly). Most broadband modems? Based on Open Source. Best selling SatNav, TomTom? Based on Open Source. Facebook? Going Open Source. Google? Based on Open Source. New York Stock Exchange? Based on Open Source. Ebay? Mobile services run on Open source.

If you run a business, you are already use Linux and other Open Source software. If you didn't know and haven't directed expletives at it lately, it's doing a grand job.

Think about it. Then exploit it.