All software has source code. Open source software grants every user access to that code. Freedom means choice. Choice means power.

That's why open source is inevitable. It returns control to the customer. You can see the code, change it and learn from it. Bugs are found and fixed quickly. When customers are unhappy with one vendor, they can choose another without overhauling their entire infrastructure. No more technology lock-in. No more monopolies.

Open source simply creates better software. Everyone collaborates, the best technology wins. Not just within one company, but among an Internet-connected, worldwide community new ideas and codes travel the world in an instant.

As a result, the open source model often builds higher quality, more secure, more easily integrated software, and it does it at a vastly accelerated pace and often at a lower cost.

In the proprietary model, development occurs within one company. Programmers write code, hide it behind boundaries and charge customers to use the software; then, they charge them more to fix it when it breaks.

The problem worsens when you become tied to a company's architecture, protocols and file formats. Some experts call this the addiction model of software procurement. We think a model that puts customers at such a fundamental disadvantage is conceptually broken.

Open source is not nameless, faceless and it's not charity nor is it solely a community effort. What you see today is a technology revolution driven by market demand.