April 29, 2011

What do you look for when selecting an open source solution for the task at hand?

Question by lobster1234

This could get quite confusing if there is a wider range of tools that fit the need – like logging in Java. In general, what would you, as fellow developers consider the so-called litmus test before making a selection between available open-source tools/libraries?

I can think about developer velocity, code documentation, the release frequency, committers’ reputation to name a few. Wanted to reach out to the community and get some more data points.

I apologize if this question belongs to programmers.stackexchange.com, I found that there are more questions tagged with open-source here than there.

Answer by thorsten müller

An active user base is often a good sign. If there is a forum or a mailing list, have a look, how many people use it, if there are recent posts and what kind of problems people have. When developing web sites with Ruby on Rails I had to choose a lot of OSS tools and an active community and answers to problems by the developers are a good sign. People are obviously still using it and problems are solved.

Answer by Starx

My main reason is the resources that are available on the internet.

  • Open Source solution, have good documentation.
  • Tips and Tricks or Tutorial are easily available.
  • Forums and discussion board are maintained in order to support.

Author: Nabin Nepal (Starx)

Hello, I am Nabin Nepal and you can call me Starx. This is my blog where write about my life and my involvements. I am a Software Developer, A Cyclist and a Realist. I hope you will find my blog interesting. Follow me on Google+

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