Some software comes with the license when purchased off the shelf or an OEM license when bundled with hardware. Software can also be in the form of freeware or shareware. Software licenses can generally be fit into the following categories: proprietary licenses and free and open source licenses, which include free software licenses and other open source licenses. The features that distinguishes them are significant in terms of the effect they have on the end-user's rights.
A free open source license makes software free for inspection of its code, modification, and distribution. Some free licenses, like the GNU General Public License, allow the product and/or derivative to be commercially sold.
Licensed software is a better option than OSS for
midsize companies
Given the choice between two products that are identical in functionality, time to market, and quality but different in terms of cost—one free and one not—I would absolutely choose the free option. But the decision between licensed software and open source software (OSS) is not such a choice. OSS rarely offers the same functionality, time to market, and quality. When it does, you should certainly go with it, but more often than not, it doesn't. The reason for this is fairly simple: lack of funds in OSS development shops.
One of the problems with the paid license vs. OSS debate is deep-seated conviction on both sides, especially in the anti-Microsoft camp. As you consider these arguments, I ask you to keep an open mind.
The midsize company
This analysis is focused on a typical midsize company, which is defined as having annual revenues of up to $200 million. Midsize companies are further characterized as being increasingly susceptible to competition. Best business practices dictate that companies in this phase should be focused on growing into global enterprises. Growth means devouring market share by the mouthful, which entails spending money to gain competitive advantage.
One of the problems with the paid license vs. OSS debate is deep-seated conviction on both sides, especially in the anti-Microsoft camp. As you consider these arguments, I ask you to keep an open mind.
The midsize company
This analysis is focused on a typical midsize company, which is defined as having annual revenues of up to $200 million. Midsize companies are further characterized as being increasingly susceptible to competition. Best business practices dictate that companies in this phase should be focused on growing into global enterprises. Growth means devouring market share by the mouthful, which entails spending money to gain competitive advantage.
Software licenses and copyright law
In the United States, Section 117 of the Copyright Act gives the owner of a particular copy of software the explicit right to use the software with a computer, even if use of the software with a computer requires the making of incidental copies or adaptations (acts which could otherwise potentially constitute copyright infringement). Therefore, the owner of a copy of computer software is legally entitled to use that copy of software. Hence, if the end-user of software is the owner of the respective copy, then the end-user may legally use the software without a license from the software publisher.As many proprietary "licenses" only enumerate the rights that the user already has under 17 U.S.C. § 117, and yet proclaim to take rights away from the user, these contracts may lack consideration. Proprietary software licenses often proclaim to give software publishers more control over the way their software is used by keeping ownership of each copy of software with the software publisher. By doing so, Section 117 does not apply to the end-user and the software publisher may then compel the end-user to accept all of the terms of the license agreement, many of which may be more restrictive than copyright law alone. It should be noticed that the form of the relationship determines if it is a lease or a purchase, for example
| Software Application (links to software site or description) | License Holder | Availability | ||||
 |  |  |  |  | ||
| @Risk | Tepper | X | ||||
| 3D Studio Max (Autodesk) | Computing Services | X | ||||
| Adams MD | X | |||||
| Adobe Acrobat Pro (Adobe) | Computing Services | X | ||||
| After Effects Pro (Adobe) | Computing Services | X | ||||
| Allegro Common Lisp | SCS | X | ||||
| Analytica | Computing Services | X | ||||
| Apple Developer Tools | X | |||||
| Archibus | Heinz | X | ||||
| ArcView | Heinz | X | ||||
| Arena | Tepper | X | ||||
| AutoCAD | Computing Services | X | X | |||
@RISK performs risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation to show you many possible outcomes in your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet—and tells you how likely they are to occur. This means you can judge which risks to take and which ones to avoid, allowing for the best decision making under uncertainty. With @RISK, you can answer questions like, “What is the probability of profit exceeding $10 million?” or “What are the chances of losing money on this venture?”
Autodesk® 3ds Max® and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design software provide powerful, integrated 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing tools that enable artists and designers to more quickly ramp up for production. The two versions share core technology and features, but offer differentiated experiences and specialized toolsets for game developers, visual effects artists, and graphic designers on the one hand, and architects, designers, engineers, and visualization specialists on the other.
MD Adams is a mechanical systems analysis software built on MSC’s multidiscipline (MD) CAE framework. MD Adams integrates mechanical components, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, and control systems technologies to enable engineers to build and test virtual prototypes that accurately account for the interactions between these subsystems.
What is Acrobat X Pro?
Adobe® Acrobat® X Pro software lets you deliver professional PDF communications. Create and edit PDF files with rich media included, share information more securely, and gather feedback more efficiently.Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production: combining multiple video sources in various ways (compositing), correcting brightness, color, and unwanted camera motion, adding visual effects, and many similar tasks.
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.
Some open source licenses meet the requirements of the Open Source Definition. Some open source software is available within the public domain.
Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements.
A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.
Web Browsing
Mozilla Firefox
The world's fastest and best overall web browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, awesome bar, and hundreds of free extensions.Video Player / Video Podcasting
Miro
Beautiful interface. Plays virtually any type of video file. Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.Telephone
Skype
Talk with anybody in the world for free using Skype. Buy some credits and you can call any phone number in the world, cheap.Video Converter- MP4, iPhone, iPod
Miro Video Converter
Convert any type of video to mp4 or theora. Convert any video for use with iPhone, iPod, Android, etc. Very clean, easy to use interface.IM - Instant Messaging
Trillian (Windows only)
A powerhouse of an IM client. Supports AOL IM, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo as well as voice chats, file transfers and more.
Pidgin (Windows / Linux only)
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. 100% open source.
Adium (Mac only)
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously, including: AOL IM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. Beautiful, themable interface.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.Application Launching
Quicksilver (Mac only)
Incredible app with cult-like following. Quicksilver lets you start applications (and do just about everything) with a few quick taps of your fingers.
Colibri (Windows only)
The closest you can get to Quicksilver on Windows.Windows Viruses and Spyware
AVG (Windows only)
The best free anti-virus program.
SpyBot (Windows only)
Clean out spyware and adware. If your computer has lots of pop-ups and weird applications, run this immediately.Utilities
WinRAR (Windows only)
Compress and expand RAR files, ZIP files, and more.The Unarchiver (Mac only)
Uncompress RAR, 7zip, tar, and bz2 files on your Mac. Many new Mac users will be puzzled the first time they download a RAR file. Do them a favor and download UnRarX for them!RSS
RSSOwl
Solid cross-platform RSS client. Open-source.
FeedDemon (Windows only)
Simple, solid rss client. Easy to use.
NetNewsWire (Mac only)
The slick integration of tabbed browsing makes this RSS reader our top pick for Mac users.
Vienna (Mac only)
Very nice, native mac RSS client. Open source.Peer-to-Peer Filesharing
uTorrent (Windows only)
A simple, fast Bittorrent client that will download your files without slowing down your computer.
Limewire
The world's most popular search and download filesharing program. Can be ad-filled and annoying, but works well for music and video.
Soulseek (Windows only)
The community-based filesharing client. Still one of the best ways to find rare music online.
Cabos
A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.Miro
In addition to being a video player, it's currently the fastest torrent client on Mac. On Windows, comparable speeds to uTorrent.Podcasting
Juice
Solid podcasting client.Video Playback
VLC
Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
MPlayer
The interface and buttons are not as nice, but it may play even more video files than VLC.
Perian (Mac only)
A plugin that allows quicktime to play additional video formats. (Included in Democracy Player.)
Real Alternative Lite (Windows only)
A lightweight, ad-free version of RealPlayer.Jailbreak Your iPhone / iPod Touch
Ziphone
Liberate your iPhone or iPod touch to do things apple won't allow.iPod Ripping
Yami
Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.
Senuti (Mac only)
Very nice interface. Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.DVD Ripping
Handbrake
DVD ripper and MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. Very simple to use.CD / DVD Burning
CDBurnerXP (Windows only)
Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs, and burn and create ISOs. Despite the name, it does work on Vista.
Burn (Mac only)
CD and DVD Burner. Burn any video to a disc that plays in your DVD player!Privacy
Vidalia
This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using military-grade techniques. For use with Firefox see: TorButton.Word Processing / Office Suites
OpenOffice.org
Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with--and a free replacement for--Microsoft Office.
Bean (Mac only)
Very fast and easy to use word processor. Live word count, autosaving, more.
AbiWord
A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.PDF Exporting
PDF Creator (Windows only)
'Print' to PDFs from any Windows program, just like God intended. Great for saving receipts, rebates, plane tickets, etc. 100% free and open source.Photo and Graphics
Picasa
The best photo album for Windows. Lets you share photos too.
GIMP
Open source photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
Seashore (Mac only)
More native Mac version of GIMP.Music
iTunes
Obvious choice, very corporate, but ultimately hard to beat as the best music player. Rip and burn CDs and download podcasts too.Wifi Scanning
KisMac (Mac only)
The best wireless scanner for Mac. Find wireless access when you're on the go.Maps
Google Earth
The 3D map of the world that just gets better and better...and creepier. Total must-have.Sound Recording
Audacity
Simple sound recording and editing tool.Privacy
Vidalia
Military-grade anonymous web browsing. Vidalia (a front-end for TOR) keeps you anonymous on the web using open source software and military-grade techniques. To use with Firefox see: TorButton.Running Windows on a Mac
Q Emulator (Mac only)
Run Windows on your Intel Mac at near native speed. Works on G4 / G5 Macs too, but much slower.FTP / SFTP
SmartFTP (Windows only)
A popular FTP program.
Filezilla (Windows only)
Excellent FTP program. 100% free and open source.
Cyberduck (Mac only)
Very good all-around ftp program.HTML / Text Editing
NoteTab Light (Windows only)
Text / html editor.
Smultron (Mac only)
Text / html editor. Integrates with Cyberduck for editing websites.IRC
mIRC (Windows only)
The most popular Windows IRC client.
Colloquy (Mac only)
Great IRC client.Examples of Free Software/Open Source
The following are some well known Free Software:OpenBSD NetBSD GNU/Hurd | Python Tcl |
Fantastic archiving utility to extract and pack archives of an extensive amount of formats. PeaZip also features password protecting archives, keyfile support, system integration, a lovely interface, and much more.
Difference between Licensed and Open Source Softwares.
