Proprietary Software can be an advantage

Some states and some companies are turning to open source software for a variety of reasons, some mentioned in this chapter. Some companies (say Microsoft) have gone on the record against open source software. Explain some of the advantages of using proprietary software and cite your advantages with websites that take or mention these positions.

                For me, I have never really paid that much attention to weather the software I was using was open source or propriety.  Open source software seems to be a way for other people to understand how the software works and make modifications.   Microsoft however has seemed to take the opposite approach and use propriety software.   This type of software makes it up to the company on how the software is distributed and most of the time it is highly restricted.  Although it seems very limited, it could also be to the company’s advantage.   This might mean paying for the software but it could also mean more money to create funds for research and advance the software.  This can also be an advantage because problems that are likely to occur can be fixed with the time and effort put into it.  Adobe Photoshop is an example of proprietary software.  The company is always coming out with new versions of the software with updates and new features.   This is such an advantage because it allows for error but the customers still know that research and money is being put into making it better.  There is also a license agreement that the customer agrees to on how long they will be able to use the software, and although it may seem restricted it also guarantees the use of that program until the license is up.  The one thought that came to mind when I thought about proprietary software is you get what you pay for, and most of the time when using open source software it is not always what you expect it to be.  With proprietary though you do get what you pay for and even though it isn’t free sometimes it is worth it to pay for something that does all of the functions you can’t always get with open source.