A comparative analysis of reliability, performance, and security of open source software and proprietary software Case Study: East African Centre for Open Source Software (EACOSS) and Kampala International University (KIU)
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Date
2007-10
Authors
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Kampala International University ,School of computer technology
Abstract
Proprietary software are programs whose licenses give the user permission\ run
them but are not allowed to share, alter or even redistribute them while Open
Source Software/Free Software (OSS/FS), also abbreviated as FOSS (Free Open
Source Software) licenses give users the freedom to run the program for any
purpose, study, modify, and redistribute copies of either the original or modified
program without having to pay royalties to previous developers.
Proprietary software has been the most commonly used software among the public
over the years though with the growth of the Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT5) industry, FOSS is a rapidly growing and commercially
accepted alternative to proprietary software in the world. In Uganda, Proprietary
software is the mostly used though FOSS is winning several users too, but most
users do not purchase licenses for these software products and have little or no
information about benefits or challenges of using either software.
This research aims at correcting this problem by providing quantitative and
qualitative results that users can use to compare software and thereby purchase
appropriate programs for their organizations. Therefore the choice of OSS/FOSS
and proprietary software is an issue whose importance can not be ignored.
Our research reveals that OSS/FOSS and proprietary performances depend on the
context and situation. When it comes to this parameter, it is hard for one to
conclusively say that FOSS or proprietary software is better. The research,
however, reveals that FOSS is more reliable and more secure than the proprietary
software.
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of postgraduate studies in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of master of science in information systems of Kampala International University
Keywords
Performance, Security of Open Source Software