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Five Step Guide to selecting the right set of FOSS tools for any requirement:

by Fouad Bajwa

toasterAn evergreen article from Sci-Tech World that I wanted to share with my readers so that you can always select the right software.

Quite a few of us want to opt for open source software, but we don’t know where to begin. Sci-tech World presents a few basic tips for selecting the right software, thus making the switch a tad easier. Here is what you should look out for:

  1. Reputation - find out more about the software, that is, whether it is able to perform well. Visit your CD vendor several times if you have to, but do not buy a software because you’re running out of patience. Discuss your plans with an experienced person before purchasing it.
  2. Ongoing effort - quite a few open source software have been launched, but not much has been done to improve upon them. So, before you decide to purchase a relatively unknown software, do find out if efforts are being made to develop it. You don’t want to pay a lot of money, only to find out that the software you selected is probably going to fall flat on its face.
  3. Standards - choosing the software, which implements open standards is very important, for it could turn out to be very costly, if you buy software that may eventually force you to learn new languages or complex data formats.
  4. Support community - make sure that the software you choose does have an interactive support community that is ready to answer your questions about deployment. If not, then you might have a hard time trying to figure out things on your own.
  5. Versions - try to buy software that has the latest version available in the market. Doing so will not only make sure that you have all the relevant updates, but will also keep your system relatively stable.
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