We see a tremendous opportunity in open-source software for all areas of life. Open source guarantees transparent and secure software that our society urgently needs. Manipulations must be able to be uncovered and published at any time by independent sources — this applies not only to voting machines, COVID-19 apps, and the many life-supporting devices found in hospitals, for example. We envision a world in which open source holds a higher status than the proprietary software such as Windows, Office & Co. does today.
We must critically question whether we can tolerate our data potentially flowing uncontrollably to foreign organizations and/or other countries. This concerns computers in schools, government offices, and also in the private sector. Therefore, we support the demand that open source must be mandatory in (higher) education, hospitals, and other public sectors.
That we mean it seriously is evident in the fact that we use open-source software ourselves and also recommend it to our customers — above all, of course, TYPO3, but also GitLab, Redmine, Apache, MariaDB, Ubuntu Linux, Firefox, and Thunderbird.
As an agency, we produce open source software every day and rely on open-source software ourselves for maintenance, operation, and development. Many people take free (and therefore often cost-free) software for granted.
Software does not write itself. Nor does it update itself to remain state-of-the-art and close potential security vulnerabilities. There are always people behind it who sacrifice their free time, or companies that forego revenue (when no client is funding the work).
As an active part of this ecosystem, we see it as our responsibility to support open-source software. On one hand, we are directly involved through our contributions to the TYPO3 project (Website Team, TYPO3 Association Board, Platinum Membership); on the other hand, we also want to financially support developers and projects directly.
We also provide a range of our own open-source software for free use. Examples include Powermail, Content Publisher, Lux, Femanager, and many other extensions and packages.
Open Source:
We support the demand “Free Software for Free Education” — a joint declaration by Germany’s community-supported open-source educational platforms.
Promote and strengthen the use and further development of open and free educational platforms!
The associations and communities of the leading German open-source systems call on politics and society to invest and show special commitment so that educational institutions remain independent from providers of proprietary software, and so that development can keep pace with growing requirements.
You can find all the details at https://www.opensourcelms.de
Can source code that is visible to everyone really provide greater security? One might easily think the opposite. After all, potential hackers can also use publicly visible code for their own purposes — and this does happen from time to time. But on the other hand, an active developer community with diverse motivations can analyze the code at any time and promptly fix potential vulnerabilities. With the help of security audits and penetration tests, open-source programs are examined for potential issues — a process that, at least in the case of security audits, is only possible by the manufacturer in closed-source software. So if you prefer to rely on closed source, you need a strong relationship of trust with the vendor — and sometimes strong nerves as well.
TYPO3 goes a step further. A dedicated security team looks after the security of the enterprise content management system. They not only follow up on reported issues but also initiate independent analyses on a regular basis. And as if that weren't enough, the team also monitors not only the TYPO3 core but also the large number of free TYPO3 extensions available to the community.
Many people confuse Open Source Software (OSS) with Free Open Source Software (FOSS). Open source means, first of all, that the code — the source of the programming — is open and can be inspected by anyone. In addition, many open source projects are also available free of charge, but not all of them.
