Commercial software should learn from open source

Proprietary software developers should turn to open-source firms for ideas on scaling and collaboration, according to Ubuntu's community manager.

Jono Bacon explained in an interview with security firm Coverity how Ubuntu manages its ecosystem of open-source software developers, and maintains secure and functional code.

Bacon said that much of the development and maintenance of Ubuntu's code has become the charge of individual developer teams, such as a specialised security developer team.

He noted that as Ubuntu has grown, collaboration with more developers has helped the operating system remain stable and secure.

"It is the often spoken 'more eyeballs on the code' philosophy," he said. "I think that is every bit as valuable today as it was when it was first spoken."

Bacon suggested that developers who operate in proprietary development environments could see benefits by adopting some of the collaborative elements used in open-source software.

"From a technical code quality perspective, proprietary software houses can learn a lot from the distributed open-source model, such as how a community can refine the quality of its code when it has a solid onramp for contributions and a means of collaborating effectively," he said.

"I do see more and more open source projects, platforms and products shipping commercial service opportunities for their users, so the growth prospects are exciting for both."