Many proprietary web publishing software tools and content management systems (CMS) offer strong features but often are outside the budget capabilites of small to midsized publishers.  Open Source (OS) software solutions are now offering publishers another option to power their web site with cutting edge capabilites for a small price.  Open source software is now commonly released under the GNU GPL license and is freely distributed.

Web design firms often charge fees for the distribution, configuration, support and setup of the open source software. This software license allows designers and developers to use and modify the software but does not allow them to package and sell the software.  This does not mean that the content on the site can't be copyrighted, however the owner does not have the right to resell this software.

Any modifications to the site software must be noted in terms of modifications. The open source software can also be freely distributed to others with the notice of these modifications and terms of the original GPL licensing conditions.

As more and more publishers utilize core open source software tools the demand increases for additional add-ons and components which are continually developed by third party developers.  These add-on modules and components can either be open source or licensed components which are sold for a fee and are limited to a user or installation instance.

The strong online community developing around stable open source platforms enables magazine publishers to upgrade their web sites with new features and enhancements.  The development around an OS platform takes on a rapid version upgrade curve and these updates solve bugs and feature requests from the community of users.

Supporting the core open source software organizations with donations is a great way to acknowledge the teams and people that have created software that benefits efforts to improve the web publishing industry.