Open Versus Closed Development

Open source software development relies on interested, knowledgeable users to update and fix a piece of software for free.  Closed source software is developed by paid programmers who do not share the source of their software with others.  When closed source software has problems or updates, the paid developers are the only ones who are allowed to change the source code.  This process can take a long time because the developers must diagnose the problems that need to be fixed and then fix them.  Updating closed source software can also take a long time because the developers of the software are usually not the ones who request the update, so they must first figure out exactly what the update should do.  Open source software can improve the process of updating and debugging software by allowing users to see the source code and attempt to fix the problems or add updates themselves.  This speeds up the process of putting out a new version of software which leads to better software faster than using closed source development.