Thin client applications can seldom run within a computer browser

Open Source Research Project

Unit III PowerPoint Presentation
Open Source Software Research Project
Research an open source software project.
Examples of open source projects are listed on page 123 of your textbook.
You are not restricted to the open source projects listed on page 123; you may research one of your own choosing that interests you.
In MS PowerPoint, create a presentation with slides that describe the open source software and how it works.
Discuss the role this open source software has in management information systems.
Remember, management information systems is the management and use of information systems that help organizations achieve their strategies (page 10 of your textbook).
Your PowerPoint must have a minimum of four slides. Be sure to use the 7X7 rule in PowerPoint: no more than 7 lines per slide and no more than 7 words per line. Use of images, graphics, and diagrams is required.

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CHAPTER 4 Hardware, Software, and Mobile SystemsJason Green, CEO of AllRoad Parts, is meeting with the committee he asked to investigate the 3D printing opportunity. Committee members Kelly Summers, CFO; Lucas Massey, IT director; Drew Mills, operations manager; and Addison Lee, head of purchasing, are with him around a conference table.Jason starts the meeting.“First, I have to thank Drew for all the hard work he put into setting up the new printer, experimenting with it, and teaching us about the reality of 3D printing. We’re not manufacturers, 3D technology won’t give us the processes and IS we need, and the parts we could produce may not stand up to the rough treatment offroading involves. So, now we know that 3D printing isn’t for us … at least not right now.”There’s a pause in the conversation, and then Kelly speaks up. “Well, we all agree about that, but we do think that, as a supplier, there is something related to 3D printing that we could sell to our customers.”Jason is curious; that’s not what he expected Kelly to say. “OK, I’ll bite,” he says. “What is it?”“Designs,” she replies. “Part designs. We don’t want to manufacture parts because we don’t want to get into the quality issues that Drew identified, but our customers might want to manufacture parts on their own 3D printers.”“You mean sell 3D-ready part designs as a product?” Jason sounds dubious.“Exactly,” Kelly shoots back.“Who’s gonna want to print their own parts? I don’t see Dad making bike parts for his kids …” Jason trails off.“No, probably not,” Drew chimes in, “but I did a quick query on past orders, and there are customers who order large quantities of particular products. They’re mostly service shops. Anyway, larger customers like that could make parts for themselves. Or make them for Dad to install on his kids’ bikes.”“Hmm. Seems like a stretch to me,” says Jason. “First of all, can we get the rights to sell the plans? Second, even if we can, why wouldn’t our customers buy the plans directly from the manufacturer?”MyMISLab™Visit mymislab.com for simulations, tutorials, and end-of-chapter problems.“Well, they might, but we already deal with a similar problem.” Drew continues, “Our customers can buy anything that we sell straight from Fox. But they don’t. Like we always say, our huge inventory provides one-stop shopping for all their parts.”“Besides, there’s something else to consider here,” Lucas speaks up. “If you call a manufacturer to order a part, what do they ask for first? The part number. When our customers call in, they say something like, ‘I want the little green plastic gizmo that goes next to big black round thing that’s right above the fork.’ It drives the manufacturers crazy.”“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me,” Jason replies. “That’s what makes our sales costs so high.”“So, here’s what we do,” says Lucas. “We create an app—maybe just a browser app, or maybe we have to do a native app, I’m not sure yet—but the app allows customers to search for the vehicles they want to service. They click on the major system for which they need parts. We know from our orders which parts each customer is most likely to order, so we highlight them. Customers click or tap on the highlighted area and keep driving down until they find the part they need. They click that part, and we offer to sell them the part if we have it in inventory or the 3D-ready file if they want to make it themselves.”This example refocuses Jason on sales costs. “Lucas, why aren’t we already doing this for our in-inventory parts? It seems like a good way to reduces sales costs,” he says.“Lucas and I have been talking about this for some time,” Addison retorts. “But building the app is expensive, and our margins on our in-inventory parts support high sales costs. So, we never brought it to you.”STUDY QUESTIONSQ1What do business professionals need to know about computer hardware?Q2What do business professionals need to know about software?Q3Is open source software a viable alternative?Q4What are the differences between native and thin-client applications?Q5Why are mobile systems increasingly important?Q6What characterizes quality mobile user experiences?Q7What are the challenges of personal mobile devices at work?Q82024?“But,” Lucas picks up Addison’s line of thought, “the prices we can charge for selling part designs are so low that we’ll lose money if customers are calling and speaking to sales reps for help. Sales labor costs will eat up any possible margins. So, design sales need an app like this.”Jason is intrigued. “How expensive is the app?” he asks.“That depends on whether we do a thin-client app or a native app,” replies Lucas. “It also depends on how much open source we can get.”“Here we go again,” Jason grumbles. “And if we do a native app, we have to do iOS and an Android version and maybe a Win 8 version … And do we do it in-house or off-shore? Yada yada. It seems like we’re always having this conversation.”“Yup, it does,” Lucas agrees.“OK,” Jason sighs. “Bring me a proposal, and let’s see what we can do. And … good work, Kelly, to you and your team.”Jason leaves the room, muttering to himself, “Android, smandroid. Riding bikes was fun. Maybe I could have made it riding the professional circuit?”CHAPTER PREVIEWWhat would you do if you were Drew? Or Kelly? How hard is it to build the new application? How much should it cost? How should they proceed? Is Lucas too conservative? If you’re wondering why, as a future business professional, you need to know about hardware and software, think about those questions. Those and others of greater complexity—most likely ones involving technology that will be invented between now and the time you start working—will come your way.You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to be a hardware engineer or a computer programmer. You do need to know enough, however, to be an effective consumer. You need the knowledge and skills to ask important, relevant questions and understand the answers.We begin with basic hardware and software concepts. Next, we will discuss open source software development and then investigate the differences between native and thin-client applications. Following that, we’ll discuss the importance of mobile systems and the characteristics of quality mobile user experiences. Employees are increasingly bringing their computers to work, which creates new challenges, as you’ll learn in Q7. Finally, we’ll wrap up by forecasting trends in hardware and software in 2024.Q1 What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About Computer Hardware?Computer hardware consists of electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process, output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer programs or software. All hardware today has more or less the same components, at least to the level that is important to us. We’ll begin with those components and then we’ll quickly survey basic types of computers.______________________________________________________________________________Hardware ComponentsEvery computer has a central processing unit (CPU), which is sometimes called “the brain” of the computer. Although the design of the CPU has nothing in common with the anatomy of animal brains, this description is helpful because the CPU does have the “smarts” of the machine. The CPU selects instructions, processes them, performs arithmetic and logical comparisons, and stores results of operations in memory. Some computers have two or more CPUs. A computer with two CPUs is called a dual-processor computer. Quad-processor computers have four CPUs. Some high-end computers have 16 or more CPUs.Over the course of your career, application software, hardware, and firmware will change, sometimes rapidly. The Guide on pages 148–149 challenges you to choose a strategy for addressing this change.CPUs vary in speed, function, and cost. Hardware vendors such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and National Semiconductor continually improve CPU speed and capabilities while reducing CPU costs (as discussed under Moore’s Law in Chapter 1). Whether you or your department needs the latest, greatest CPU depends on the nature of your work.The CPU works in conjunction with main memory. The CPU reads data and instructions from memory, and it stores results of computations in main memory. Main memory is sometimes called RAM, for random access memory.All computers include storage hardware, which is used to save data and programs. Magnetic disks are still the most common storage device, although optical disks such as CDs and DVDs also are popular. Thumb drives are small, portable storage devices that can be used to back up data and transfer it from one computer to another.Types of HardwareFigure 4-1 lists the basic types of hardware. Personal computers (PCs) are classic computing devices that are used by individuals. In the past, PCs were the primary computer used in business. Today, they are gradually being supplanted by tablets and other mobile devices. The Mac Pro is an example of a modern PC. Apple brought tablets (sometimes called slates) to prominence with the iPad. In 2012, Microsoft announced Surface and Google announced the Nexus series, all tablets. Smartphones are cell phones with processing capability; the Motorola (now owned by Google) Droid is a good example. Today, because it’s hard to find a cell phone that isn’t smart, people often just call them phones.A server is a computer that is designed to support processing from many remote computers and users. You can think of a server as a PC on steroids. As a business professional, you probably will not be involved in the choice of server hardware. As of 2013, a good example is the Dell PowerEdge server. Finally, a server farm is a collection of, typically, thousands of servers. (See Figure 4-2.) Server farms are often placed in large truck trailers that hold 5,000 servers or more. Typically a trailer has two large cables coming out of it; one is for power and the other is for data communications. The operator of the farm backs a trailer into a pre prepared slab (in a warehouse or sometimes out in the open air), plugs in the power and communications cables, and voilà, thousands of servers are up and running!25146060655200011430045720000Figure 4-2 Server FarmSource: © Andrew Twort/AlamyIncreasingly, server infrastructure is delivered as a service in what is termed the cloud. We will discuss cloud computing in Chapter 6, after you have some knowledge of data communications. PCs, tablets, and smartphones that access servers and the cloud are called clients.The capacities of computer hardware are specified according to data units, which we discuss next.Computer DataComputers represent data using binary digits, called bits. A bit is either a zero or a one. Bits are used for computer data because they are easy to represent physically, as illustrated in Figure 4-3. A switch can be either closed or open. A computer can be designed so that an open switch represents zero and a closed switch represents one. Or the orientation of a magnetic field can represent a bit: magnetism in one direction represents a zero; magnetism in the opposite direction represents a one. Or, for optical media, small pits are burned onto the surface of the disk so that they will reflect light. In a given spot, a reflection means a one; no reflection means a zero.Computer Data Sizes6629406621780Figure 4-3 Bits Are Easy to Represent PhysicallyAll forms of computer data are represented by bits. The data can be numbers, characters, currency amounts, photos, recordings, or whatever. All are simply a string of bits. For reasons that interest many but are irrelevant for future managers, bits are grouped into 8-bit chunks called bytes. For character data, such as the letters in a person’s name, one character will fit into one byte. Thus, when you read a specification that a computing device has 100 million bytes of memory, you know that the device can hold up to 100 million characters.3962402194560Bytes are used to measure sizes of noncharacter data as well. Someone might say, for example, that a given picture is 100,000 bytes in size. This statement means the length of the bit string that represents the picture is 100,000 bytes or 800,000 bits (because there are 8 bits per byte).The specifications for the size of main memory, disk, and other computer devices are expressed in bytes. Figure 4-4 shows the set of abbreviations that are used to represent data storage capacity. A kilobyte, abbreviated K, is a collection of 1,024 bytes. A megabyte, or MB, is 1,024 kilobytes. A gigabyte, or GB, is 1,024 megabytes; a terabyte, or TB, is 1,024 gigabytes; a petabyte, or PB, is 1,024 terabytes; and an exabyte, or EB, is 1,024 petabytes. Sometimes you will see these definitions simplified as 1K equals 1,000 bytes and 1MB equals 1,000K, etc. Such simplifications are incorrect, but they do ease the math.Specifying Hardware with Computer Data SizesComputer disk capacities are specified according to the amount of data they can contain. Thus, a 500GB disk can contain up to 500GB of data and programs. There is some overhead, so it is not quite 500GB, but it’s close enough.Buying hardware can be tricky and expensive whether you are buying for personal or company use. Consumers can now check out a new computer at a traditional brick-and-mortar store and take the hardware for a test drive and then purchase online. Is this “showrooming” ethical? Read the Ethics Guide on pages 132–133 and decide.You can purchase computers with CPUs of different speeds. CPU speed is expressed in cycles called hertz. In 2013, a slow personal computer has a speed of 1.5 Gigahertz. A fast personal computer has a speed of 3+ Gigahertz, with dual processors. As predicted by Moore’s Law, CPU speeds continually increase.Additionally, CPUs today are classified as 32-bit or 64-bit. Without delving into the particulars, a 32-bit is less capable and cheaper than a 64-bit CPU. The latter can address more main memory; you need a 64-bit processor to effectively use more than 4GB of memory. 64-bit processors have other advantages as well, but they are more expensive than 32-bit processors.An employee who does only simple tasks such as word processing does not need a fast CPU; a 32-bit, 1.5 Gigahertz CPU will be fine. However, an employee who processes large, complicated spreadsheets or who manipulates large database files or edits large picture, sound, or video files needs a fast computer like a 64-bit, dual processor with 3.5 Gigahertz or more. Employees whose work requires them to use many large applications at the same time need 4 GB or more of RAM. Others can do with less.One last comment: The cache and main memory are volatile, meaning their contents are lost when power is off. Magnetic and optical disks are nonvolatile, meaning their contents survive when power is off. If you suddenly lose power, the contents of unsaved memory—say, documents that have been altered—will be lost. Therefore, get into the habit of frequently (every few minutes or so) saving documents or files that you are changing. Save your documents before your roommate trips over the power cord.______________________________________________________________________________Q2 What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About Software?As a future manager or business professional, you need to know the essential terminology and software concepts that will enable you to be an intelligent software consumer. To begin, consider the basic categories of software shown in Figure 4-5.Operating systems can become infected with malware. Read the Security Guide on pages 146–147 to learn more.Every computer has an operating system (OS), which is a program that controls that computer’s resources. Some of the functions of an operating system are to read and write data, allocate main memory, perform memory swapping, start and stop programs, respond to error conditions, and facilitate backup and recovery. In addition, the operating system creates and manages the user interface, including the display, keyboard, mouse, and other devices.Although the operating system makes the computer usable, it does little application-specific work. If you want to check the weather or access a database, you need application programs such as an iPad weather application or Oracle’s customer relationship management (CRM) software.Both client and server computers need an operating system, though they need not be the same. Further, both clients and servers can process application programs. The application’s design determines whether the client, the server, or both, process it.You need to understand two important software constraints. First, a particular version of an operating system is written for a particular type of hardware. For example, Microsoft Windows works only on processors from Intel and companies that make processors that conform to the Intel instruction set (the commands that a CPU can process). Furthermore, the 32-bit version of Windows is designed for Intel computers with 32-bit CPUs, and the 64-bit version of Windows runs only on Intel computers with 64-bit CPUs. With other operating systems, such as Linux, many versions exist for many different instruction sets and for both 32- and 64-bit computers.Second, two types of application programs exist. Native applications are programs that are written to use a particular operating system. Microsoft Access, for example, will only run on the Windows operating system. Some applications come in multiple versions. For example, there are Windows and Macintosh versions of Microsoft Word. But unless you are informed otherwise, assume that a native application runs on just one operating system. Native applications are sometimes called thick-client applications.A thin-client application is designed to run within a computer browser such as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Thin-client applications run within the browser and can run on any type of computer. Ideally, a thin-client application can also run within any browser, though this is not always true as you will learn.Consider next the operating system and application program categories of software.What Are the Major Operating Systems?The major operating systems are listed in Figure 4-6. Consider each.Nonmobile Client Operating SystemsNonmobile client operating systems are used on personal computers. The most popular is Microsoft Windows. Some version of Windows resides on more than 85 percent of the world’s desktops, and, if we consider just business users, the figure is more than 95 percent.3962403810000right000Figure 4-6 Major Operating SystemsThe most recent client version of Windows is Windows 8, a major rewrite of prior versions. Windows 8 is distinguished by what Microsoft calls modern-style applications.1 These applications are touch-screen oriented and provide context-sensitive, pop-up menus. They can also be used with a mouse and keyboard. Microsoft claims that modern-style applications work just as well on portable, mobile devices, such as tablet computers, as they do on desktop computers. One key feature of modern-style applications is the minimization of menu bars, status lines, and other visual overhead. Figure 4-7 shows an example of a modern-style version of searching for images in Windows Explorer.Apple Computer, Inc., developed its own operating system for the Macintosh, Mac OS. The current version is Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Apple touts it as the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, and until Windows 8, it was without doubt. Windows 8 now gives it a run for the money in terms of that title.Until recently, Mac OS was used primarily by graphic artists and workers in the arts community. But for many reasons, Mac OS has made headway into the traditional Windows market. According to NetApplications, as of March 2013, all versions of Windows account for 90 percent of business applications. OS X accounts for 7 percent.21Previously called metro-style. Name change by Microsoft, reputedly because of a trademark lawsuit from Europe.2“Net Applications,” accessed July 15, 2013, http://www.netapplications.com.586740117348000Source: Microsoft Mac OS was designed originally to run the line of CPU processors from Motorola, but today a Macintosh with an Intel processor is able to run both Windows and the Mac OS.Unix is an operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in the 1970s. It has been the workhorse of the scientific and engineering communities since then. Unix is seldom used in business.Linux is a version of Unix that was developed by the open source community (discussed on page 123). This community is a loosely coupled group of programmers who mostly volunteer their time to contribute code to develop and maintain Linux. The open source community owns Linux, and there is no fee to use it. Linux can run on client computers, but usually only when budget is of paramount concern. By far, Linux is most popular as a server OS.Mobile Client Operating SystemsFigure 4-6 also lists the five principal mobile operating systems. Symbian is popular on phones in Europe and the Far East, but less so in North America. BlackBerry OS was one of the most successful early mobile operating systems and was used primarily by business users on BlackBerry devices. It is now losing market share to iOS, Android, and Windows 8.iOS is the operating system used on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. When first released, it broke new ground with its ease of use and compelling display, features that are now being copied by the BlackBerry OS and Android. With the popularity of the iPhone and iPad, Apple has been increasing its market share of iOS and according to Net Applications is used on 61 percent of mobile devices.3 The current version of iOS is iOS 7.Android is a mobile operating system licensed by Google. Android devices have a very loyal following, especially among technical users. Recently, Android has been gaining market share over the BlackBerry OS on phones, and it received a big boost when it was selected for the Amazon Kindle Fire. Net Applications estimates Android’s market share to be nearly 25 percent.Most industry observers would agree that Apple has led the way, both with the Mac OS and the iOS, in creating easy-to-use interfaces. Certainly, many innovative ideas have first appeared in a Macintosh or iSomething and then later were added, in one form or another, to Android and Windows.3“Net Applications,” accessed July 15, 2013, http://www.netapplications.com.Windows RT is a version of Windows designed for use on ARM devices. ARM is a computer architecture and instruction set that is designed for portable devices such as phones and tablets. Windows RT is a version of Windows 8 that is specifically designed to provide a touch-based interface for devices that use this architecture. As of May 2013, Windows RT appears to be a flop. Instead, users who wish to use Windows 8 on mobile devices seem to be choosing full Windows 8 on a Surface Pro device. Windows 8 phone sales have a miniscule market share.The smartphone market has always been huge, but recently, e-book readers and tablets have substantially increased the market for mobile client operating systems. As of June 2013, one in three Americans owned at least one of these devices.4Server Operating SystemsThe last three rows of Figure 4-6 show the three most popular server operating systems. Windows Server is a version of Windows that has been specially designed and configured for server use. It has much more stringent and restrictive security features than other versions of Windows and is popular on servers in organizations that have made a strong commitment to Microsoft.Unix can also be used on servers, but it is gradually being replaced by Linux.Linux is frequently used on servers by organizations that want, for whatever reason, to avoid a server commitment to Microsoft. IBM is the primary proponent of Linux and in the past has used it as a means to better compete against Microsoft. Although IBM does not own Linux, IBM has developed many business systems solutions that use Linux. By using Linux, neither IBM nor its customers have to pay a license fee to Microsoft.VirtualizationVirtualization is the process by which one computer hosts the appearance of many computers. One operating system, called the host operating system, runs one or more operating systems as applications. Those hosted operating systems are called virtual machines (vm). Each virtual machine has disk space and other resources allocated to it. The host operating system controls the activities of the virtual machines it hosts to prevent them from interfering with one another. With virtualization, each vm is able to operate exactly the same as it would if it were operating in a stand-alone, nonvirtual environment.Three types of virtualization exist:•PC virtualization•Server virtualization•Desktop virtualizationWith PC virtualization, a personal computer, such as a desktop or portable computer, hosts several different operating systems. Say a user needs, for some reason, to have both Linux and Windows 8 running on a computer. In that circumstance, the user can install a virtual host operating system and then both Linux and Windows 8 on top of it. In that way, the user can have both systems on the same hardware. VMWare Workstation is a popular PC virtualization product that runs both Windows and Linux operating systems.With server virtualization, a server computer hosts one, or more, other server computers. In Figure 4-8, a Windows Server computer is hosting two virtual machines. Users can log on to either of those virtual machines, and they will appear as normal servers. Figure 4-9 shows how virtual machine VM3 appears to a user of that server. Notice that a user of VM3 is running a browser that is accessing SharePoint. In fact, this virtual machine was used to generate many of the SharePoint figures in Chapter 2. Server virtualization plays a key role for cloud vendors, as you’ll learn in Chapter 6.4http://www.zdnet.com/a-third-of-american-adults-now-own-tablet-computers-7000016867/, accessed August 2013.PC virtualization is interesting as well as quite useful, as you will learn in Chapter 6. Desktop virtualization, on the other hand, has the potential to be revolutionary. With desktop virtualization, a server hosts many versions of desktop operating systems. Each of those desktops has a complete user environment and appears to the user to be just another PC. However, the desktop can be accessed from any computer to which the user has access. Thus, you could be at an airport and go to a terminal computer and access your virtualized desktop. To you, it appears as if that airport computer is your own personal computer. Later, you could do the same with a utility computer while sitting in your hotel room. Meanwhile, many other users could have accessed the computer in the airport, and each thought he or she had his or her personal computer. IBM offers PC virtualization for as low as $12 a month per PC.Figure 4-8 Windows Server Computer Hosting Two Virtual MachinesSource: Microsoft CorporationDesktop virtualization is in its infancy, but it might have major impact during the early years of your career, as discussed in Q8, 2024?.Own Versus LicenseWhen you buy a computer program, you are not actually buying that program. Instead, you are buying a license to use that program. For example, when you buy a Mac OS license, Apple is selling you the right to use Mac OS. Apple continues to own the Mac OS program. Large organizations do not buy a license for each computer user. Instead, they negotiate a site license, which is a flat fee that authorizes the company to install the product (operating system or application) on all of that company’s computers or on all of the computers at a specific site.In the case of Linux, no company can sell you a license to use it. It is owned by the open source community, which states that Linux has no license fee (with certain reasonable restrictions). Large companies such as IBM and smaller companies such as RedHat can make money by supporting Linux, but no company makes money selling Linux licenses.6096002095500 What Types of Applications Exist, and How Do Organizations Obtain Them?Application software performs a service or function. Some application programs are general purpose, such as Microsoft Excel or Word. Other application programs provide specific functions. QuickBooks, for example, is an application program that provides general ledger and other accounting functions. We begin by describing categories of application programs and then describe sources for them.Horizontal-market application software provides capabilities common across all organizations and industries. Word processors, graphics programs, spreadsheets, and presentation programs are all horizontal-market application software.Examples of such software are Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Examples from other vendors are Adobe’s Acrobat, Photoshop, and PageMaker and Jasc Corporation’s Paint Shop Pro. These applications are used in a wide variety of businesses, across all industries. They are purchased off the shelf, and little customization of features is necessary (or possible).Vertical-market application software serves the needs of a specific industry. Examples of such programs are those used by dental offices to schedule appointments and bill patients, those used by auto mechanics to keep track of customer data and customers’ automobile repairs, and those used by parts warehouses to track inventory, purchases, and sales.Vertical applications usually can be altered or customized. Typically, the company that sold the application software will provide such services or offer referrals to qualified consultants who can provide this service.One-of-a-kind application software is developed for a specific, unique need. The IRS develops such software, for example, because it has needs that no other organization has.You can acquire application software in exactly the same ways that you can buy a new suit. The quickest and least risky option is to buy your suit off the rack. With this method, you get your suit immediately, and you know exactly what it will cost. You may not, however, get a good fit. Alternately, you can buy your suit off the rack and have it altered. This will take more time, it may cost more, and there’s some possibility that the alteration will result in a poor fit. Most likely, however, an altered suit will fit better than an off-the-rack one.Finally, you can hire a tailor to make a custom suit. In this case, you will have to describe what you want, be available for multiple fittings, and be willing to pay considerably more. Although there is an excellent chance of a great fit, there is also the possibility of a disaster. Still, if you want a yellow and orange polka-dot silk suit with a hissing rattlesnake on the back, tailor-made is the only way to go. You can buy computer software in exactly the same ways: off-the-shelf software, off-the-shelf with alterations software, or tailor-made. Tailor-made software is called custom-developed software.Organizations develop custom application software themselves or hire a development vendor. Like buying the yellow and orange polka-dot suit, such development is done in situations where the needs of the organization are so unique that no horizontal or vertical applications are available. By developing custom software, the organization can tailor its application to fit its requirements.Custom development is difficult and risky. Staffing and managing teams of software developers is challenging. Managing software projects can be daunting. Many organizations have embarked on application development projects only to find that the projects take twice as long—or longer—to finish than planned. Cost overruns of 200 and 300 percent are not uncommon. We will discuss such risks further in Chapter 10.In addition, every application program needs to be adapted to changing needs and changing technologies. The adaptation costs of horizontal and vertical software are amortized over all the users of that software, perhaps thousands or millions of customers. For custom-developed software, however, the using organization must pay all of the adaptation costs itself. Over time, this cost burden is heavy.5943604091940Because of the risk and expense, custom development is the last-choice alternative, used only when there is no other option. Figure 4-10 summarizes software sources and types.What Is Firmware?Firmware is computer software that is installed into devices such as printers, print servers, and various types of communication devices. The software is coded just like other software, but it is installed into special, read-only memory of the printer or other device. In this way, the program becomes part of the device’s memory; it is as if the program’s logic is designed into the device’s circuitry. Therefore, users do not need to load firmware into the device’s memory.Firmware can be changed or upgraded, but this is normally a task for IS professionals. The task is easy, but it requires knowledge of special programs and techniques that most business users choose not to learn.Q3 Is open source software a viable alternative?To answer this question, you first need to know something about the open source movement and process. Most computer historians would agree that Richard Matthew Stallman is the father of the movement. In 1983, he developed a set of tools called GNU (a self-referential acronym meaning GNU Not Unix) for creating a free Unix-like operating system. Stallman made many other contributions to open source, including the GNU general public license (GPL) agreement, one of the standard license agreements for open source software. Stallman was unable to attract enough developers to finish the free Unix system, but continued making other contributions to the open source movement.In 1991, Linus Torvalds, working in Helsinki, began work on another version of Unix, using some of Stallman’s tools. That version eventually became Linux, the high-quality and very popular operating system discussed previously.The Internet proved to be a great asset for open source, and many open source projects became successful, including:•Open Office (a Microsoft Office look-alike)•Firebox (a browser)•MySQL (a DBMS, see Chapter 5)•Apache (a Web server, see Chapter 6)•Ubuntu (a Windows-like desktop operating system)•Android (a mobile-device operating system)•Cassandra (a NoSQL DBMS, see Chapter 5)•Hadoop (a BigData processing system, see Chapter 9)A GROUP EXERCISE Using MIS InClass 4: Place Your Bets Now!In June, 2012, Microsoft announced Microsoft Surface, a tablet device to compete with the iPad and Kindle.Just another hardware announcement? Not quite. For the first time in Microsoft’s 37-year history, it decided to manufacture its own hardware. (Except for keyboards, mice, and the Xbox, that is.)Microsoft has been notorious for not manufacturing hardware. In the early PC days, Microsoft expressly left hardware manufacturing to IBM, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and so on. It gained considerable market share over Apple because that decision enabled those powerful companies to succeed in selling Microsoft Windows on their hardware, which in turn set the stage for Microsoft Office. In the 1980s, Bill Gates famously wrote Steve Jobs telling him that he needed to give up hardware and focus on software.But was Steve Jobs right all along? At the Surface announcement, Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO, indicated there were features that Microsoft could build, or at least build better, if it controlled the hardware. Is owning manufacturing one of the keys for Apple’s ability to create such beautiful, easily used, and highly functional devices? Maybe so.Meanwhile, that same month, Google finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, thus becoming a manufacturer of smartphone hardware. Is its manufacture of tablet hardware just around the corner? Or, perhaps by the time you read this, Google will have announced that it is manufacturing its own tablet. (The Nexus 10 is made by Samsung, not Google.)But Google and Microsoft have a problem that Apple doesn’t have: channel conflict. Apple is the only manufacturer of Apple hardware. But numerous companies other than Google make Android phones and tablets, and several companies other than Microsoft make Windows phones and tablets. What happens to those businesses? Have they been thrown under the technology bus?It’s a three-way race for market share: Apple far in the lead, Google following up, and Microsoft struggling for footing back in the dust. They’re all strong horses; all have deep technical staff, knowledge, patents, and plenty of money. Place your bets now!Form a group as directed by your professor and answer the following questions:1.Update the table (on the next page) with the latest announcements and data. Go to http://finance.yahoo.com and update the financial data. Add new devices as appropriate. Search the Internet, using terms such as iPhone vs. Android market share to update the market share data.2.According to the latest data, how has the market share of these three companies changed? Has Apple made continued inroads on Android phones? Has Surface made inroads on the iPad? What’s happened to the Kindle? And what about Microsoft’s measly 2 percent of the phone market? Has Surface helped? Or has Microsoft finally given up on smartphones?Unlike Apple and Google, Microsoft controls Windows Server, a server operating system. Does that provide an advantage to Microsoft in this race? There are rumors, in fact, that Apple runs Windows Server in its iCloud data center. If true, does it matter?4.In October 2011, Microsoft purchased Skype. Does Skype contribute to Surface? Can you find announcements that indicate there is some convergence there?5.Microsoft makes and sells the Xbox with motion-sensing Kinect. Can you envision a way for Microsoft to use either of those to help increase market share of its Surface/phone devices? If so, what?6.Microsoft enjoys incredible success in the PC market, but it has, at least so far, never been able to succeed with a phone, and as of May 2013, Microsoft Surface does not seem very successful. Christopher Mims thinks it’s time for Microsoft to give up on consumers and focus on businesses,5 especially business back-office applications. What do you think Microsoft should do?137160457200007.Suppose your group has $500,000 to invest in AAPL, GOOG, or MSFT. You must put all of it in one stock. Which stock do you choose and why?5Christopher Mims, “It’s Time for Microsoft to Give Up on Consumers,” Quartz, last modified April 17, 2013, http://qz.com/75423/its-time-for-microsoft-to-give-up-on-the-consumer/.Why Do Programmers Volunteer Their Services?To a person who has never enjoyed writing computer programs, it is difficult to understand why anyone would donate his or her time and skills to contribute to open source projects. Programming is, however, an intense combination of art and logic, and designing and writing a complicated computer program can be exceedingly pleasurable (and addictive). Like many programmers, at times in my life I have gleefully devoted 16 hours a day to writing computer programs—day after day—and those days would fly by. If you have an artistic and logical mind, you ought to try it.The first reason that people contribute to open source is that it is great fun! Additionally, some people contribute to open source because it gives them the freedom to choose the projects they work on. They may have a programming day job that is not terribly interesting—say, writing a program to manage a computer printer. Their job pays the bills, but it’s not fulfilling.In the 1950s, Hollywood studio musicians suffered as they recorded the same style of music over and over for a long string of uninteresting movies. To keep their sanity, those musicians would gather on Sundays to play jazz, and a number of high-quality jazz clubs resulted. That’s what open source is to programmers: a place where they can exercise their creativity while working on projects they find interesting and fulfilling.Another reason for contributing to open source is to exhibit one’s skill, both for pride and to find a job or consulting employment. A final reason is to start a business selling services to support an open source product.How Does Open Source Work?The term open source means that the source code of the program is available to the public. Source code is computer code as written by humans and understandable by humans. Figure 4-11 shows a portion of the computer code that I wrote for the PRIDE project (see start of Chapter 7).Source code is compiled into machine code that is processed by a computer. Machine code is, in general, not understandable by humans and cannot be modified. When a user accesses a Web site, the machine code version of the program runs on the user’s computer. We do not show machine code in a figure because it would look like this:In a closed source project, say Microsoft Office, the source code is highly protected and only available to trusted employees and carefully vetted contractors. The source code is protected like gold in a vault. Only those trusted programmers can make changes to a closed source project.With open source, anyone can obtain the source code from the open source project’s Web site. Programmers alter or add to this code depending on their interests and goals. In most cases, programmers can incorporate code they find into their own projects. They may be able to resell those projects depending on the type of license agreement the project uses.Open source succeeds because of collaboration. A programmer examines the source code and identifies a need or project that seems interesting. He or she then creates a new feature, redesigns or reprograms an existing feature, or fixes a known problem. That code is then sent to others in the open source project who evaluate the quality and merits of the work and add it to the product, if appropriate.Typically, there is a lot of give and take. Or, as described in Chapter 2, there are many cycles of iteration and feedback. Because of this iteration, a well-managed project with strong peer reviews can result in very high quality code, like that in Linux.So, Is Open Source Viable?The answer depends on to whom and for what. Open source has certainly become legitimate. According to The Economist, “It is now generally accepted that the future will involve a blend of both proprietary and open-source software.”6 During your career, open source will likely take a greater and greater role in software. However, whether open source works for a particular situation depends on the requirements and constraints of that situation. You will learn more about matching requirements and programs in Chapter 10.In some cases, companies choose open source software because it is “free.” It turns out that this advantage may be less important than you’d think because in many cases support and operational costs swamp the initial licensing fee.Q4 What Are the Differences Between Native and Thin-client Applications?In the chapter opening, when Lucas mentioned thin-client app and native app, Jason didn’t hesitate. He knew exactly what those terms meant and the issues involved with each. And Jason is a CEO. He knows those issues, as does the AllRoad Parts team, and so should you.To begin, as stated, applications can be categorized as native applications that run on just one operating system or thin-client applications that run in browsers. In the latter case, the browser provides a more-or-less consistent environment for the application; the peculiarities of operating systems and hardware are handled by the browser’s code and hidden from the thin-client application.Figure 4-12 contrasts native and thin-client applications on their important characteristics. Consider the Native Applications column first.6“Unlocking the Cloud,” The Economist, May 28, 2009.Developing Native ApplicationsNative applications are developed using serious, heavy-duty, professional programming languages. Mac OS and iOS applications are constructed using Objective-C, Linux (Android) applications are constructed using Java, and Windows applications are constructed using C#, VB.NET, C++, and others. All of these languages are object-oriented, which means they can be used to create difficult, complex applications, and, if used properly, will result in high-performance code that is easy to alter when requirements change. The particular characteristics 487680777240of object-oriented languages are beyond the scope of this text.Figure 4-12 Characteristics of Native and Thin-client ApplicationsObject-oriented languages can only be used by professional programmers who have devoted years to learning object-oriented design and coding skills. Typically, such developers were computer science majors in college.The benefit of such languages is that they give programmers close control over the assets of the computing device and enable the creation of sophisticated and complex user interfaces. If the programs are well written, they perform fast and use memory efficiently.