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Figure 4-10 Software Sources and Types
Because of the risk and expense, custom development is the last-choice alternative, used
only when there is no other option. Figure 4-10Figure 4-10 summarizes software sources and
types.
What Is Firmware?
FirmwareFirmware is computer software that is installed into devices such as printers, print
servers, and various types of communication devices. The software is coded just like
other software, but it is installed into special, read-only memory of the printer or other
device. In this way, the program becomes part of the device’s memory; it is as if the
program’s logic is designed into the device’s circuitry. Therefore, users do not need to
load firmware into the device’s memory.
Firmware can be changed or upgraded, but this is normally a task for IS professionals.
The task is easy, but it requires knowledge of special programs and techniques that most
business users choose not to learn.
Q3 Is open source software a viable alternative?
To answer this question, you first need to know something about the open source
movement and process. Most computer historians would agree that Richard Matthew
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Stallman is the father of the movement. In 1983, he developed a set of tools called GNUGNU (a
self-referential acronym meaning GNU Not Unix) for creating a free Unix-like operating
system. Stallman made many other contributions to open source, including the GNUGNU
general public license (GPL) agreementgeneral public license (GPL) agreement, one of the standard license agreements for
open source software. Stallman was unable to attract enough developers to finish the
free Unix system, but continued making other contributions to the open source
movement.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds, working in Helsinki, began work on another version of Unix,
using some of Stallman’s tools. That version eventually became Linux, the high-quality
and very popular operating system discussed previously.
The Internet proved to be a great asset for open source, and many open source projects
became successful, including:
• Open Office (a Microsoft Office look-alike)
• Firebox (a browser)
• MySQL (a DBMS, see Chapter 5Chapter 5)
• Apache (a Web server, see Chapter 6Chapter 6)
• Ubuntu (a Windows-like desktop operating system)
• Android (a mobile-device operating system)
• Cassandra (a NoSQL DBMS, see Chapter 5Chapter 5)
• Hadoop (a BigData processing system, see Chapter 9Chapter 9)
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