What problems do Linux and other open-source software help companies address?

Answer 1

Many problems are addressed by Linux & other open source software.The main ones are -:

1. Reduces costs for company drastically - compare free openoffice.org with $50 for a single software license for MS Word - that's just the beginning!

2. Helps avoid major security lapses as open source code is always superior to closed source.

3. Helps set up a smoother process for work due to software which follows industry standards as opposed to propriety closed source options..

And these are just a few of the many advantages of Linux & open source..

Answer 2

Open source software addresses the issue of proprietary software in terms of how it is maintained, and their associated copyrights.

Proprietary software is only maintained by the software developers and only they have the access to the source code. This means that if any issue arises with the code, only they can fix it, and in the case of certain companies, it may be a long time before a fix can be released which will leave a lot of users in the dark especially if the issue is a major one. As for copyrights, usually it's the case of "all rights reserved" and you cannot make a copy without the express permission of the copyright owner (and usually in order to get permission you have to pay a certain amount of money for that permission).

Conversely, open-source software is software with its source code available to everyone, and will have different licenses like GPL, LGPL (a more "permissive" version of the GPL that allows the code released with this license be used in proprietary software), and so on.