Open Source Software to Help Business Students Navigate Costly Software Licensing
This research study conducted was of the graduate emerging information technology course. Approximately 18 students were given instructions on how to build virtual machines (VMs). These VMs contained the open source equivalent to commercially available software applications that charge license fees. The students were required to locate, install, and integrate these open source software (OSS) applications. The primary objective of this study for the MBA students was to measure the OSS and calculate the cost savings to the business enterprise. Once the MBA students concluded their research, they had to generate a presentation and demonstrate their knowledge of the application to their peers. LibreOffice was one of the applications used and discussed during the presentations. LibreOffice contains a word processor program, spreadsheet program, presentation program, graphics editor program and Base. Base is a database management program similar and compatible to Microsoft Office in some versions that have been recently released. What the students found in their data is many companies are also switching to LibreOffice from Microsoft Office to help in cost savings with licensing fees. This study provides a guide as to how OSS helps them strategically management information technology (IT) license costs and maintenance fees.
