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Open Source: Oratopigiphobia: Fear of Visible Source
By Kenneth Hess

May 16, 2008 —

I’ve heard all kinds of excuses for not using open-source operating systems and software, but I believe that none are more powerful than those that are fear-based. Fear is often a great motivator and a great obstacle. For those in the corporate world, fear and risk are motivational tools often responsible for great accomplishments, huge windfalls and overnight successes. And, of course, they are behind a considerable amount of failure as well. So why do I repeatedly hear, “It’s just too big a risk to use open source.”?

My gut feeling is that there is an innate fear of something free. Or, perhaps, our upbringing programmed us into thinking that free never really means free—that there are strings attached or something more to buy before it works. Don’t let me lead you astray here. Not all open-source software is free and some of it isn’t even cheap. Open source has the implication of free because you get the source code that created the program as well as the working software.

When asked to produce a cheap solution for a company, I offer two or three equivalent alternatives and let them choose the one that best fits their budget for the project. I’ve never had anyone choose the one that used all free and open-source software and operating systems. It’s as if they don’t believe that anything good can also be free. No one wants to pay top dollar, everyone wants a discount, and no one wants it free either.

I call this fear of open source, Oratopigiphobia. No, you won’t find that in the list of official phobias but I can assure you it exists. It literally means visible source fear and I made it up myself to describe those who, for one reason or another, fear the use of open-source software.

There are things that you should fear: bears, terrorists, global warming, oil prices—but free software? When probed about the hesitation to embrace an inexpensive solution, the answers often come in bursts and in the form of questions.

“There’s no one to blame if something goes wrong.”

“Who’s going to support this if you get hit by a bus?”

“If this stuff is so great, why are they giving it away?”

“They’ve probably programmed in viruses or bugs to steal my data.”

“It’s free now but what about in a year or two?”

I attempt to allay those fears by explaining the last 30 years or so of work in the public domain, open source, GPL, and the concepts behind Linux and other open-source software. If something does go wrong with the software, there are people to blame. The developers of open-source software are not evil beings seeking out the destruction of the corporate world—especially if you consider that 90 percent or more of all businesses are small businesses.

If I were to get hit by a bus, I hope your damn software support isn’t your first concern. However, since I am a realist, I let them know that there are plenty of other hungry open-source knowledgeable people around; my talents are not very rare these days.

Explaining why software is free is harder than you might think. I use all my training for this one—all the dialog from open-source Web sites, the high concepts of freedom from proprietary oppression—and how we won’t be held at gunpoint to upgrade every two years at the cost of the software upgrade plus new hardware required to support it. Oh yes, I throw it all in.

The question of viruses, bugs, Trojan horses and spyware also concerns me. I am not afraid of such things because I only use reliable sources for my solutions—projects that have a long and successful history. This would be a short-lived project because anyone who ever finds it and discovers its secret payload would share that information on the Internet. Additionally, in more than 10 years of using open-source projects, I have never found a project with a malicious purpose.

To the free now but pay later question, I can say that it has never happened to me. On the other hand, it is a legitimate concern because of recent open-source software purchases by commercial enterprises.

Take a risk with open-source software. The payoffs can be great and the costs can be zero. Face your fears, Oratopigiphobes, and be free.

Kenneth Hess is a freelance technical writer who writes on a variety of subjects including Apache, Linux, MySQL, PHP and SQLite. Reach him at kenhess.com.

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