Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Wednesday 8 July 2009, 8:03 AM
Have Open Source Management Tools Come of Age?
I was lucky enough to meet a chap called Johan Sørensen recently. He’s the guy behind Gitorious, which is the open source infrastructure for hosting open source projects that use the Git version control system. Having tried to cover the highly popular Perforce software change management offering in recent years I thought it was particularly interesting to see an open source project like Gitorious gaining ground.
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Despite being initially operated by just Sørensen himself, in March this year Gitorious was folded into a software company called Shortcut AS. The motive for this move was to try and take Gitorious beyond what was practicable for a single developer to handle. You don’t need me to tell you this but I’ll say it anyway - open source is growing up fast all over the place isn’t it?
Although there are always places where you can find limitations with open source (the super-scaled down nature of Linpus Linus Lite on my Acer Aspire One being top of my list) – the general view is one where every layer of the technology stack is receiving open source love and, in many cases, a good deal of attention.
Continuing this train of thought, Enterprise content management (ECM) is a subject I normally have to work quite hard on to make it interesting. That’s not so true today because I can point to a newly announced open source ECM solution from Alfresco Software.
With the prospect of inflated (and perhaps stealthily hidden) subscription charges always a possibility with proprietary vendors, I was pleased to see Alfresco addressing this issue in the second line of its corporate boilerplate. They say, “The company couples the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform at a tenth of the cost.”
NB: For the record, that is the first time I have EVER quoted from a boilerplate – but if it’s true then it’s the point I wanted to highlight.
ECM in practice is all about tasks like streamlining email and mobile content management, records management and archiving – and as you’d imagine there are a lot of regulatory compliance issue associated with all of these functions.
If a solution like this actually does what it says on the virtual tin and supports open specifications and standards such as CMIS and IMAP, then there is no reason not to at least consider it surely? Alfresco Community Edition 3.2 is a free-to-download, free-to-use version developed on an open source stack that runs on Windows, Linux or Mac.
Do you buy the argument that tough times call for lean measures and this is helping drive interest in enterprise-level open source tools like this? Do you buy the argument that open source tools have become deeply more sophisticated in recent years and are proliferating wildly? Or don’t you think fat-cat CIOs take them seriously enough?
'Despite being initially operated by just Sørensen himself, in March this year Gitorious was folded into a software company called Shortcut AS. The motive for this move was to try and take Gitorious beyond what was practicable for a single developer to handle. You don’t need me to tell you this but I’ll say it anyway - open source is growing up fast all over the place isn’t it?
Although there are always places where you can find limitations with open source (the super-scaled down nature of Linpus Linus Lite on my Acer Aspire One being top of my list) – the general view is one where every layer of the technology stack is receiving open source love and, in many cases, a good deal of attention.
Continuing this train of thought, Enterprise content management (ECM) is a subject I normally have to work quite hard on to make it interesting. That’s not so true today because I can point to a newly announced open source ECM solution from Alfresco Software.
With the prospect of inflated (and perhaps stealthily hidden) subscription charges always a possibility with proprietary vendors, I was pleased to see Alfresco addressing this issue in the second line of its corporate boilerplate. They say, “The company couples the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform at a tenth of the cost.”
NB: For the record, that is the first time I have EVER quoted from a boilerplate – but if it’s true then it’s the point I wanted to highlight.
ECM in practice is all about tasks like streamlining email and mobile content management, records management and archiving – and as you’d imagine there are a lot of regulatory compliance issue associated with all of these functions.
If a solution like this actually does what it says on the virtual tin and supports open specifications and standards such as CMIS and IMAP, then there is no reason not to at least consider it surely? Alfresco Community Edition 3.2 is a free-to-download, free-to-use version developed on an open source stack that runs on Windows, Linux or Mac.
Do you buy the argument that tough times call for lean measures and this is helping drive interest in enterprise-level open source tools like this? Do you buy the argument that open source tools have become deeply more sophisticated in recent years and are proliferating wildly? Or don’t you think fat-cat CIOs take them seriously enough?
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