When we need some type of program to use on a day-to-day basis with the PC, there are several doubts that can assail us in this regard. Of course, the first thing that we must be more than clear about is the type of application we need at that time, as well as what it can offer us to make it useful.
Be it a text or photo editor, a program to convert videos , a P2P client, an antivirus or an Internet browser , we generally find many options. As many of you probably already know first-hand, there are several parameters that we must take into account, in addition to their type of use. At the same time we must think if we want it to be complex or simple, and more importantly, paid or open source, for example.
It is true that over the last few years, open source software has grown to a great extent. A good part of this is given by the quality of the solutions that we can use at the moment and corresponding to all types of sectors. But of course, how could it be otherwise, as has been customary for years, commercial or paid software is still very present. In fact we can find really affordable titles, or other more powerful and professional available only to some.
For all this, in these lines we will talk about some of the general advantages that these payment programs offer us compared to open source ones. What we are going to comment on is not extendable to all the software solutions that we can use today, but it is the usual thing if we compare both modalities.
They have a more extended support, even 24 hours
One of the advantages that these payment solutions offer us compared to open source ones is the support they offer. Keep in mind that these payment solutions often have an extensive development team. They also belong to a large company with a good mass of workers, so they have a section only for customer service. In fact some of these companies offer support 24 hours a day, although there we limit ourselves to a more business use.
Updates are usually bigger and more common
In addition, and because we are paying for this software solution, it requires more effective maintenance and improvement. That is why many times we receive updates almost constantly from these paid or commercial programs, something that tends to be more spaced in time in the case of Opensource . And it is that at the same time we must bear in mind that open source projects are often made up of a team of volunteers or subject to donations from their users. In this sense, they cannot compete with the large commercial software firms .
They are less at risk of disappearing
And this that we comment on is equally extensible to the future of the project . As long as a payment project continues to have clients who disburse on it, it continues, or at least has more possibilities, it is not the same in Opensource. And it is that an open source project is more likely to be abandoned suddenly, despite being of quality in many cases.