Free and Open Source Software – An Empirical Study

Abstract

A software can be described in terms of its characteristics. These characteristics can be further subdivided into sub-characteristics and their corresponding attributes. The basic idea generally remains the same i.e. to analyse the software in terms of its working, performance, cost and complexity. All these aspects lead to the software evaluation. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is no exception in this regard.The basic idea behind carrying out this research endeavour was to analyse FOSS in terms of its important characteristics likeDeploybility and Maintainability. The purpose of such study was to establish the association between these two vital characteristics empirically. Apart from this, two very important issues related to FOSS, were also taken into account. It was tried to find out how and what help FOSS professionals seek when they encounter some problem in their routine or specialized tasks. Another matter of concern was to know if people involved in FOSS do require some training sort of activity for the betterment of their FOSS related activities. The survey results signify that seeking additional knowledge through one way or the other does improve proficiency. The probable dependency of the two characteristics on each other was also established.