"When you pay for proprietary software, what do you get? Let's look at the world's largest software company, Oracle - the cost of their software licences is astronomical and well out of the range of most small businesses." But, on the plus side, "bundled with those licences is a whole lot of service, set-up, configuration, customisation and specialised consulting and training". With free software, you get none of that, she says. Typically, people download it, install it and see if it works. People can choose to buy those additional services if they need them. Organisations such as Red Hat and Canonical, as well as many open-source consultants, are selling services and support around open-source software. "It's a new way of doing things," says a former systems architect, Paul Galland, who started up online music storage business Save My Musik recently, using the open-source database from Sun, MySQL. Mining the talent in the "legions" of community development groups was how Galland found people to help him evaluate, maintain and support his open-source products.

Open source is a boon for small businesses, he says. "There would not be as many start-ups without open-source. I paid for high-end hardware and removed some costs with Sun's open-source software with half the money I thought I'd need. "We sell a service; it has to be good quality. We have put effort into the best architecture and safety and security of data. The database is the most critical [aspect]. "I don't do anything leading-edge. The technology I use is conservative and proven. But if you are using an open-source product where the community developer base is small, then you could be caught out. The wider use of the technology, the safer you are." According to an Australian government document discussing the risks of open-source software, the first question to ask is whether the software has an established track record. "If the software has been available for a reasonable time and there appears to be a longstanding community of users, this may support claims that the software performs as advertised," it says.

Another issue facing open-source products is the perceived lack of research and development. If the software is free or almost free, there is no money to put back into research and development to keep the product up to date, which is traditionally how it's done. Benjamin says open-source software is more a project than a product. "Everyone with an interest works together to protect, preserve and improve the eco-system that produces it," she says. "Let's look at Linux [a free operating system]. Linux is one of the most successful open-source projects in existence. Some of the world's top vendors are working together by employing developers to work on the Linux kernel [the software that runs the operating system]. IBM, HP, Novell, Red Hat, Canonical, Oracle and now even Microsoft make contributions to the Linux kernel that supports their own products." The research and development also takes place in community organised events, Benjamin says. "They're like the secret R&D lab brought out into the open marketplace. Developers mingle and socialise, all the while sharing their experiences, explaining their challenges and working together to find solutions to common problems. "This is where the seeds are sown for new features, where problems are solved and the technology is improved. It's the technologists that drive these events, not the marketing department. There is no marketing department."