There are really two ways to go in choosing the software to support your online application, its development and hosting; open source software such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl, or commercially licensed software such as MS IIS, SQL Server, and Exchange, and Oracle. Online Brands Inc. believes in the open source software movement. In the application development industry, the debate over which route is better is a highly political and polarized one.

On the side of open source

On the one side of the coin, supporters of open source software argue that the software is superior in that there is a world of developers actively working to develop and make it the best it can be. The source code is open to the world’s finest developers and as a result it takes advantage of this pool of talent. Because the source of the software is open for all to see, bugs are fixed relatively quickly and the overall direction of the development process flows by way of the needs of the software industry and the Internet community overall. In fact the Internet itself is based on open standards such as TCP/IP, HTTP, CSS, XML, C and C++. Perhaps the largest factor in choosing a software platform to run is the price. Open source software is free to license, barring a few limitations. Most open source software follows the GNU GPL licensing standard.

On the side of closed source

Supporters of commercially licensed software argue that since the source code is open for all to see, it is inherently insecure. Hackers have an advantage in that they have the source code for the applications they want to hack. Further, proponents of commercially licensed software argue that open source software lacks the support available from traditional software vendors. Supporters of commercially licensed software also argue also that commercially licensed software is often superior due to the fact that the money they make on their products can go towards organizing and hiring top talent to produce even finer software.

Our choice

We chose the route of open source software for ourselves and advocate its use for others. For us, we feel that overall it is superior software. When and if problems do crop up they are usually fixed in record time. We feel it is also less limiting as we are free to explore just about any possibility using open source software whereas, concerning commercially licensed software, it often costs dearly to license even one aspect of functionality. Because the source is open to us, we can make changes when needed, or make updates on our time. This is something that is prohibited when licensing software from a large vendor. If the software available does not fit the bill, or there are problems with the software, it is up to the vendor to produce a fix, or upgrade on their time.

We also feel that the support options of open source are superior and learning opportunities more abundant. As there is a large pool of talent actively developing software in the open source community, there is an even larger number of people who are available to call upon through various channels for support.

A support issue might be quickly answered in an online forum, or if needed can be out sourced to companies that are more than proven themselves in their field and which specialize in open source software VA Linux, LinuxCare, Covalent Technologies are but a few.

For our needs, open source software fits the bill. When consulting with clients, we will make recommendations based upon our clients needs, and under most circumstances we will recommend Open Source software where appropriate.

Of course we are not alone, you have no doubt probably heard of Linux. We currently run Linux on our servers. Linux builds on Unix, which has over 30 years of development behind it and is feature rich. We use chose Apache for our web server platform. Apache, which is the world’s most popular web server, currently hosts over 60% of all the domain names on the net according to the latest E-Soft survey results.

PHP is a scripting language that allows for the dynamic creation of web pages and a whole lot more. PHP is one of the fastest growing technologies out there and is currently being used on millions of web sites. That number continues to grow every month. It is also commercially support by a company founded by two of its core developers Zend.

MySQL our database server of choice, can handle tables with countless records with lighting speed and efficiency, and has been thoroughly tested and proven.

A term you may or may not have heard lately is LAMP. LAMP stands for Linux Apache MySQL and the last part is debatable but most people agree, either PHP, Perl or Python. The LAMP combination of software working together can handle the largest and most demanding web applications and has proven to do so with some of the webs biggest online properties employing PHP such as Facebook, and Yahoo.

As a whole we will utilize open source in our projects where we can, however, we also understand that your needs may require a proprietary solution. Either way, we’ll work with you to help you make the best choice for your platform.