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The Dangers of Open Source Software

February 6, 2019

For years and years, OpenOffice was the preferred open source alternative to Google Docs or Microsoft Office. The interface is different and features tend to be less than the purchased product. Even so, open source software is a good choice for those with a very, very tight budget starting out in the business world. Open source software is free, which is attractive to a lot of people. The problem has to do with updates and support. There is no guarantee that security updates will be timely or that you will ever see any enhancements or feature improvements.

Referring specifically to open source Office alternatives, a major vulnerability was revealed dealing with remote scripting. LibreOffice has been patched, but Apache OpenOffice is still waiting for some brave soul to update the code. Bottom line…you are beholden to the open source community if you elect to use the free software, making you vulnerable to a compromise if you use an unpatched product like OpenOffice. Know the risk – I would suggest saving your pennies and going with a vendor supported product instead.

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