We see open source software as a tremendous opportunity for all areas of life. Open source guarantees transparent and secure software, which our society desperately needs. Manipulations must be able to be uncovered and published by independent sources at any time - this applies not only to voting machines, Covid 19 apps, and the multitude of life-supporting devices found in hospitals, for example. We would like to see a world in which open source takes on a higher status than proprietary software such as Windows, Office & Co. currently does.
We must critically question whether we can tolerate our data flowing uncontrolled to other countries in the worst case. This applies to computers in schools, offices and also in the private sector. That is why we stand behind the demand that open source must be mandatory in universities, schools, hospitals and other public areas.
The fact that we are serious about this can be seen from the fact that we use open source software ourselves and also recommend it to our customers. First and foremost, of course, TYPO3, but also Gitlab, Redmine, Apache, MariaDB, Ubuntu Linux, FireFox, Thunderbird.
As an agency we produce open source software on a daily basis and rely on open source software for maintenance, operation and development. Many people take free (and therefore often free) software for granted.
Software does not write itself automatically. Nor does software update itself automatically to keep up with the latest technology and to close possible security gaps. There are always people behind it who sacrifice their free time or companies who forego sales (if no customer is behind it).
As an active part of this eco system, we see it as our obligation to support open source software. On the one hand, we are directly involved in the TYPO3 project (Website Team, Board of Directors of the TYPO3 Association, Platinum Membership), on the other hand we want to support developers and projects directly.
We also provide a range of our own open source software for free use. Examples are Powermail, Content Publisher, Lux, Femanager and many other extensions and packages.
We support the demand "Free Software for Free Teaching" - A joint declaration of the German, community-based open source education platforms
Strengthen and promote the use and further development of open and free education platforms!
The associations and communities of the leading German open source systems demand investments and special commitment from politics and society, so that the independence of educational institutions from providers of proprietary software is maintained and the speed of development meets the growing demands.
You can find all details on this at https://www.opensourcelms.de.
Can a source code that is visible to everyone really provide more security? Actually, one could have exactly the opposite opinion. After all, even potential hackers can exploit the code that is visible to everyone for their own purposes. And that happens from time to time. But, to the contrary, an active developer community can analyze the code with different motives at any time and close possible vulnerabilities promptly. With the help of security audits and penetration tests, open source programs are scanned for possible problems - a process that - at least in security audits - is only possible for closed source programs by the manufacturer. So if you prefer to rely on closed-source, you need a strong relationship of trust with the vendor - and sometimes strong nerves.
TYPO3 goes one step further. An own security team takes care of the security in the Enterprise Content Management System. Not only reported problems are followed up, but also independent analyses are initiated again and again. And as if that wasn't enough effort, the team not only monitors the TYPO3 core but also takes care of the many free TYPO3 extensions available to the community.
ALSO LEARN HOW YOU CAN FURTHER SECURE YOUR TYPO3 WEBSITE
Many people confuse Open Source Software (OSS) with Free Open Source Software (FOSS). In the first step, open source means that the code - the source of the programming - is open and can be examined by anyone. In addition, many open source projects are also freely available but not all.
Open Source:
