https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202125101003
The Challenges of Open Source Software Alternatives
1 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Science, Athens, Greece
2 CERN IT Department, Esplanade des Particules 1, 1217 Meyrin, Switzerland
Published online: 23 August 2021
Developing an Open Source Software application is a challenge. Mainly because there are commercial alternatives that have an army of expert developers behind them, experienced supporters and wellestablished business processes in their development and promotion. Nevertheless, web-based applications, that securely handle the users’ personal data are an area of freedom and ease of use, features that make such applications very attractive. The “ease-of-use” part is very hard to achieve, for the developers and the end-users. Dependencies change often in OSS packages, so the fear that something breaks is always around the corner.
If the application looks attractive, additional user requirements fall like rain. This poses a problem of continuity, maintenance and operational quality of the packages. In this paper and presentation we shall share our experience in building such a tool, using https://cern.ch/slides, as a showcase and a learning exercise. We shall describe what was available, what was missing, how it was put together, how much effort it took, and what was achieved.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
