One very important tool that Web Impakt uses is open source software. Open source software is software that can be freely given away. The source code for the program is available so other programmers can access it and make changes. This means that Web Impakt can use an open source shopping cart program like OSCommerce and modify it to meet our customer’s requirements. It saves our customers money because Web Impakt doesn’t have to take the time to program credit card processing, reports, item storage etc.
The greatest benefit of open source software is the fact that the solutions created under the open source model may not have been possible under the conventional software creation paradigm. Programmers from around the world put their heads together to create robust and innovative code.
This article on CNET.com is summed up in it’s title: Any CIO not using open source “should be fired”: a conversation with CIOs. Web Impakt believes that as well. Most of our dynamic web programs and websites are all built on the LAMP frame work.
LAMP is an acronym for a solution stack of open source software including the following open source pieces:
Linux – An open source operating system
Apache – The most popular HTTP server on the World Wide Web
MySQL – A database management system with over 10 million users
PHP – A server-side scripting language
Web Impakt utilizes the LAMP framework to deploy inexpensive, reliable and scaleable software solutions.
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Open source software can be a tricky adventure, especially for companies looking to “build” upon open source code. Most open source code is licensed under the GNU. The GNU serves to keep open source code free even AFTER light or heavy modifications to the original source code. This means a company that builds proprietary components, workflows or logic within an open source code base must freely offer those modifications to the community. This may be a drawback for some companies. For example, any company that Web Impakt has used OSCommerce for and has made changes to the OSCommerce source code to support said company, I can legally request a copy of that company’s source code for OSCommerce….yikes