Open Source is fantastic. What's better than gaining software and functional libraries for free (as in beer). A lot of people owe it to the open source 'community' to reach where they are today because they have been able to experience functions and features for free (as in beer).

Similarly, if you commission an open source software to be built. Not only are you standing on the shoulders of giants and able to build something for next to nothing (free as in beer). You are also (directly or indirectly) contributing back to the open source community who gave you all the basic features.

This system is Progress! for humanity itself. Fantastic. Love it. But if you're a business owner, please ask yourself this question:Are you a charity? or a capitalistic venture? If you consider yourself a charity and you enjoy giving free lunches. Fair enough, and good for you. 

If you're in business to make a living. You should understand the consequences of what you're doing. This is not a post about anti-opensource philosophies. This is a post about the practical considerations of actions and effects.

I could have in fact titled this post as Why Open Source is a charity or How Open Source destroys jobs and perhaps even Why Open Source is Communistic in nature. But I am specifically talking to you. A business owner, out here trying to make a living and provide the high life for yourself and your family. This is because many a business owners today are being coaxed into commissioning and building open source softwares with the promises of better security (which is untrue), better support (again not true) and cheaper development cost (true). This condition is obvious particularly in the field of internet software development (in particular - websites).

To understand why you are essentially giving away food (quite literally). You have to understand how a simple request to an agency/developer to build you a digital platform for your business is done today.

Today. A digital agency would take your request, create a proposal, and return you a quote. Obviously, you're going to shop around for quotes to see which one gives you the best deal. In the end, you'll filter out the high costing agencies that offers you bespoke closed/limited source softwares that are handcrafted. And you'll opt for an agency that gives you an open sourced, IKEA software - manufactured in the Open Source Community factory, with some customisations done on the detailing.

All great for you right? All make perfect sense and logical so far yes? It's only human nature.

But consider this following fact... all those customisations that you've also comissioned? They're all copied and reused for everybody that comes after you for free and is integrated into the Open Source Community factory. Or in simple terms: everybody that saw you driving with the customisation around can now get the same customisation for free.

If that hasn't ring any alarm bells yet. So what do you do to stay ahead of the competition? Conventional business senses dictates that the only way is to increase the percieved value of your products to your customers. Whichever way you physically implement it. One thing is for sure. Your profit margin will suffer.

So in the end, your action of getting a better deal in comissioning for a website with customisations, would have the effect of allowing your competitors to obtain the same customisation for free. Sooner or later, as businesses compete by comissioning more open source software. You'll run out of the number of possible customisations that you can possibly do to your site. Everybody would have a social network grade site that only cost a packet of peanuts to feed to the monkey that configured it with your company name and e-mail address.

The promise of digital revenue and growth by adopting the internet into your business life cycle becomes akin to a listing in the yellow pages back when the internet didn't exist. And the clever sods that brought you the digital platforms eventually becomes extinct.

That is the eventual outcome if you adopt softwares with the open source GPL license. Which is what Drupal uses FYI. If you're ok with this outcome. Go ahead, adopt and support open source software, comission your website with open source softwares. You're truly a great human being. A leader of humanity. Destroyer of Darwinism's survival of the fittest theory.

Otherwise, please give it a second thought when you comission your digital platform as to what actually benefits you, and what is at the cost of borrowing from your business' future.

There are of course alternatives to GPL such as BSD that is truly free without a limitation of infecting everything else it touches to become GPL as well. But the eventual outcome is the same. Open Source as it exists today is not free as in freedom software, it truly is free in both sense of the word, because there isn't a single Open Source license out there that gives you the source code for you to modify as you want, but restrict distribution of the original; That ladies and gentlmen, would've been the capitalistic license in support of "Open Source" and provides users with the Freedom to modify the operation of a software without leading the software development industry into a death spiral.

#End Note: I make no assumptions to your affiliations or philosophical or political alignment, you can take the hint of sarcasm in this post, or you can pat yourselves on the back for being a real angels for the fact that you are giving away free lunches at the expense of others as well as yourself. I am both and neither captialistic and communistic. This post is aimed at business owners who by nature is captialistic and to enlighten them to the fact that open source websites that are being offered by a lot of digital agencies and web developers today will ultimately be "bad for business".

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