Open source platforms are just great when it comes to kick-starting a new project. There is security, compliance, quality, and every other element that is required to start a project or a website from scratch. Of course, such platforms offer the ease and convenience that is required to the developers but every set of advantages comes with its own hidden cost. So, even if you have some great open source platforms to start your project, there are some pitfalls that you need to avoid so that you can achieve success.

These pitfalls are basically the elements that you must avoid when using open source platforms. We are going to brief a bit about some of the mistakes that must be avoided towards the end of the article.

The number of open source platforms on online repository are available in countless numbers. So, organizations looking for any kind and type of open source platforms can choose one for their new project. What these firms forget to keep a check on is the level of quality and safety that should always remain the prime concern in every such selection.

Besides security there are thousands of other concerns that must be kept in the mind. Let’s now get into a detailed discussion in order to avoid the common mistakes that the majority of people are not aware of.

Mistakes to Avoid in Open Source Platforms

1. Open Source Software Security Risk

Security vulnerabilities are the opportunities that every hacker looks for. And the fact that these vulnerabilities are often discussed on the community website provides an easier chance for them to exploit the same in their favor. So, tracking open source security vulnerabilities and fixing similar bugs should always remain on the list of the companies looking forward to taking open source platform for their next project.

More to this, the community of hackers remain on their toes for taking advantage of every new vulnerability that is being discussed in the community. The fact that these hackers are as capable of exploiting these bugs as any well known developer is, marks another point for taking security measures prior to using any of the open source platforms.

2. Quality Risk

While organizations invest thousands of dollars on quality assurance of their projects, they generally do not remain very much strict on checking the quality of an open source platform. When we give so much emphasis on our products how can we remain negligent about the quality of an open-source platform?

While the fact that there are no open standards to check the quality of such platforms creates a problem to ensure the quality of an open source platform. Moreover, when selecting any open source platform the quality doesn’t remain the very first concern of any of the developers. The feature of an open source platform is what the majority of people will look forward to when selecting such a platform. However, there are some aspects that could help developers know about the quality of a platform and those aspects are:

1. Number of bugs fixed in each version
2. The severity of the bugs fixed

3. Copy Past Open Source Code

Developers may not sense the criticality of copy pasting a code but it is a severe mistake. Copy pasting a code gets with it a bunch of unwanted coding in the environment. Moreover, copy pasting scenarios are good only when the developers are experienced enough and know every aspect about copy pasting snippets like how they work and in how much amount they are getting extra bunch of code on their environment.

To prevent such a mistake developers (not experienced enough) must have a clear understanding of the fact that which code is needed for copy pasting and how much they should curb in order to get the codes that are relevant.

4. Dependencies

There are generally two kinds of dependencies that developers need to rely on: direct and transitive. With direct dependencies the developers can have the libraries on which their codes calls on and transitive dependencies are the libraries that developer’s dependencies are linked to. With open source platforms, it is important to track the dependencies so that the visibility and control over the software is not lost.

So, if you or your team is making use of any open source platform, it is recommended to track all the open source libraries that also includes direct and transitive dependencies. Moreover, developers using dependency management tools like Maven, Bower, etc. must keep this consideration into their minds.

5. Relying Too Much On The Platform

Open source platforms are often seen as an option that is available cheaply for the developers with valuable offering. This makes many companies rely heavily on community support. Getting support from these communities is a great idea but depending totally on them should never be entertained.

No doubt open source environment provides great value but depending completely on such platforms can have its own negative impact. Some of the companies also believe that open source environments are a way to cut down extensively on their developers’ cost but that too is not true. These open source development platforms can only be taken help for small help and queries.

In Conclusion

These are just a few considerations that should always be avoided when using open source platforms. There is no doubt that open source platforms are of great help for developers and other technical professionals for considerably reducing time on development; however, they should always be used carefully by keeping all the above-mentioned pointers in the mind. Take such platforms only as a path and not the destination.

More to this, developers must keep a check on the quality of the code or an open source platform that is being utilized for website development requirements. The security of a platform is crucial for the overall security of an environment. Knowing how much to take from any of the open source platforms is always in developers’ favor. There could hundreds of issues if things are not used ideally.