While the battle between iOS and Android is getting hotter, HP's WebOS unexpectedly joined the war with its latest announcement to the public that WebOS will now be open source. So, is this a good thing? I mean, more and more companies are embracing the notion of "Open Source", leaving Apple to be the sole conqueror of closed source ecosystem. Alright, before I start, "What the hell is Open Source?", some might ask. Let me give you guys a head start. Open Source is a type of software where its source code is available to everyone. And Source code is basically a set of instruction written for computers. Which means that the software is basically free for everyone and you are free to alter any part of it without having to face legal action.
Alright, now that you know what is open source, the term "closed source" simply means the opposite. It means a software is under close control and no unauthorized alteration is allowed. So now we have both parties claiming that their approaches are more superior than their opponent. Is it so? Well, to be fair, both has their pros and cons, and as a matter of fact, they both need each other to maintain the health of this ecosystem.
Frankly speaking, closed source, or what we commonly referred to as the Apple culture, is definitely more comfortable to use, as users are guaranteed that their devices and software will work as promised. Everything is under tight and strict supervision that things will most likely work perfectly, or at least, close to perfect. Users know that their devices are completely under control. There would be less crashes, nearly zero incompatibility, and best of all, less security vulnerable. Yet, the down side is, you can't control and modify your device to work your way. You have to follow the way Apple want to work. There's not much choices. You can't change the look of your user interface, you can customize the functionality of your system, you just can't. It might be good for common users, but it certainly upsets the hobbyists and power users.
Open source, on the other hand, offers you complete freedom. Users have freedom to choose between various custom user interface, custom ROMS, enjoy the convenience of widgets, and even root your devices easily to achieve better hardware performance and intrude the restricted system boundary. With that you get to enjoy countless of useful applications that you can never get from a controlled ecosystem like iOS. Though you can jailbreak your iOS, doing some extra stuff, the experience will never be the same as open source OS like Android. However, like the world of reality, excessive freedom would eventually backfire. The open source nature of Android makes it easier for hackers to intrude, causing a lot of risks and troubles that even mobile security applications couldn't handle. Besides that, with Android OS being offered for different mobile devices from different companies, it's hard to control the compatibility issues of applications. An application that fit in your HTC might not fit in others' Samsung or Motorola. You can say that things are pretty messed up for now (while Android promised that the introduction of ICS will make a change, we will have to wait and see). Furthermore, due to the lack of quality control to the apps development in Android, a lot of low quality and sometimes risky apps are produced and published, making it harder for users to get quality applications that work smoothly.
I know it sounds like closed source is far more superior than open source, but think again. If there's no open source, you will never have the chance to enjoy high quality programmes like Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Freemake Converters, Soluto, CCleaner, Open Office, etc. Try imagine your life without open source software and applications. It will be awful. You will need to pay more for your software, and you will never see all those amazing features popping out from the ground everyday on the web. So, to be fair, our world need a balanced ecosystem and closed & open source should co-exist to make this happen.
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