For every commercial software package that you could implement for your start-up publishing company, there are scores of open source (OS) alternatives. Open source software packages can provide two key benefits to the small and start-up publishing company: They can be a cost-effective alternative to commercial software (and the accompanying site licenses), and they can be incorporated early in a company's life and grow as the company grows. The wide variety of OS options can be bewildering and frustrating. This section provides you with an introduction to open source software, offers some resources for finding and evaluating open source software for your business, and concludes with a brief case study describing how a mid-sized publisher might approach open source software. |
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