But some companies that build a lot of in-house software are often faced with the idea of open-sourcing their projects. To many, this is a no-brainer. Other businesses, however, struggle with the idea of making their code available for anyone to see and use. The very idea that someone could roll your code into their own projects, thereby benefiting from your developer’s hard work, is for many a non-starter.
But that attitude is a bit short-sighted.
Let’s take a look at the reasons why you should open-source your projects and a few reasons why you shouldn’t.
Give What You Get
First off, there’s no way around your country email list company using open-source software. It’s inevitable. Truth be told, your company might not be where it is today had it not been for the many open-source projects available.
Because of that, why not give back to those projects by way of releasing your source code? Who knows, you might have made a change to a project that could help improve how the entire world does business. That level of giving cannot be overstated. Many open-source projects greatly benefit from that kind of back and forth. So if your company wants to give back to the community that has helped to bring your business into the modern era, open-sourcing your project is a great place to start.
World Wide Vetting
You probably have a team of in-house managers will have periodic meetings with testers that go through every piece of software that is released, to ensure it functions properly. But what if you could enlist an entire globe of testers to help find and fix those bugs?
When you open-source your projects, you make the source code available for developers across the planet to view and alter. You might find a C or Java developer on the other side of the globe has discovered a serious vulnerability that your Q&A team missed. You cannot put a price on that.
Improve Your Company’s Reputation
When a company does bad things, reactions occur at the speed of 240 characters. Conversely, when a company does good, the word also travels.
If you want to bolster the reputation of your company, open-sourcing a project can help. Although that bit of good news will originally travel through development and open-source circles, eventually word will get out and give your company a boost.
Having a Say in Major Projects
Imagine your developers having a say trust review in projects like Kubernetes, Docker, Apache, Samba, or the Linux kernel. That would not only give you major bragging points, but it could give your company a foot in the door as to how those projects evolve. When you’re looking at a project from the inside, you might have a bit more influence, which could bring your company projects to the next level.
On top of this, your company is most likely already using open-source projects.