Barriers to Using Open Source Software in the Work Place

It is no secret that I am a big fan of open source software. Just take a look at the laundry list of articles under my account and you will see quite a few are about Ubuntu Linux, OpenOffice.org and other open-source projects. Granted I am not a programmer, nor do I have a desire to be one. The openness of the open-source movement however does not merely include the software itself, but also documentation. This is my fascination with open-source.

However in the workplace setting, there are some obstacles or barriers which stand in the way of open-source software from appearing on your desktop? We will look at three of the big barriers to open-source software in a business setting.

Barrier One: Format Support

The first and biggest barrier I see is format support. Programs such as Microsoft Office dominate the business world for one big reason: everyone uses it. Sure there are other office suites available including WordPerfect, Star Office and even the free and open-source version, OpenOffice.org. Many of these other products are rarely used due to format support. Thankfully, Star Office and the free, open-source OpenOffice.org both support Microsoft's Office formats as well as their own formats.

Barrier Two: Software Support

As an avid users of open-source software (Linux user), the amount of ready support for open-source software is lacking, quite a bit in some areas and none at all in others. This is a huge barrier to overcome. What good is software if you cannot use it and then find out there is no support, at least not free support, for figuring out your problems? Thankfully, it appears as though the amount of community-contributed support is rapidly increasing. It is my hope, and I will be doing my part, that this trend continues, with the quality and availability of this support increasing.

Barrier Three: Ease of Use

Sure you can switch from using Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org's suite and never look back right? I would so love to be able to say that you can. As with any software, there is a learning curve involved. Somethings operate the same while others do not. This is what makes ease of use a barrier. In the business world, time is money and time "wasted" to learn a new product can be costly. Add in the lack of documentation, or outdated documentation, and you can end up with a huge deficit in valuable work hours.

Conclusion

How can these barriers be overcome? In the next installment, we will be looking at some methods your business can use to assist in overcoming some or all of these barriers to using open-source software in the workplace.