Since it’s humble origins as a cultural niche, the open-source platform movement has grown to a huge user community dedicated to improving their CMS of choice. Instead of a small design team, open-source content management systems rely on a dedicated fan base for their ongoing support. Some may have dedicated corporate designers, but for the most part outside of the core features and functionality any work relies on the efforts of like-minded developers and designers working long, unpaid hours.
But the rewards from fostering OS projects come from simply being a part of the respective community.In open-source, the desire to contribute and improve the source code drive the development community. The support base for these sites often means that problems can be diagnosed in minutes. Bugs are generally well-known and most problems encountered are at the mercy of an abundance of resources on how to solve them.
Having an open-source framework also means that new development is expedited by good documentation, user feedback, and technical support. In contrast to proprietary systems, where you might have to rely on either one company’s technical support, or run into a lack of technical resources on a particular issue.
From an economical standpoint, Open-Source distributions and platforms are generally free, or licensed comparably cheaper than a commercially-available proprietary system. The majority of the open-source CMS platforms are free, in addition to a plethora of office suites, graphics design programs, blogs, blog applications, modules, plugins, and much more.
In conclusion, OS web design solutions can be leveraged for a variety of a company’s web and office needs. The Open Source movement should be actively encouraged and contributed to, as it will foster growth and innovation in the web community and online strata.