People looking at launching a digital signage network have an abundance of options to choose from. When looking at software solutions, two main choices come to mind. There are proprietary, and open source solutions. To pick the best candidate you must consider your business needs, risk tolerance and financial situation. There is one thing everyone can agree on Open source does not necessarily mean “free” software. There may not be any fees for acquiring and using the software, but at some point, you will hit a wall and you’ll need help.

May 6, 2014 - Looking for an Open Source Alternative for Digital Signage. Windows-based applications would be best but Linux-based is absolutely a. Most of the below systems are open source, and each offers a media library and remote deployment functionality. Software options listed in alphabetical order. Seven free and open source digital signage options 1. Screen management dashboard (via Concerto) Concerto is downloadable, open source, digital signage software created in 2008.

You may need to purchase some add-on services, or bring someone in with specific expertise to complete your project. If you look long enough, you will find free proprietary software solutions. Unfortunately, these products are often crippled or seriously restricted, making them all but useless for anything but very basic projects. They only exist to attract customers to a paid, and fully supported version. The problems with community based support Many open source digital signage products can be traced back to a college or university projects.

After all, you have a large pool of talent who has the time and resources required to build and test software. The educational sector is a great test-bed for these types of solutions, since they have needs only can fulfill. By creating their in-house and releasing the product to the open source community, colleges and universities benefit from a very large base of users and developers. After all, this is what open source is all about.

It’s important to note the strength of any open source project lies in its user community. The more active and engaged the community, the better developed and refined the software. When you have a healthy open source project, users receive frequent software patches and bug fixes so they end up with a more reliable product. They can also contribute to the product’s development, which can be useful. However, products that aren’t developed with an active user community tend to stagnate and fall behind. Bugs aren’t fixed as quickly, if at all.

New operating system versions and hardware components are no longer supported. Soon, the few remaining users find the software is no longer reliable, or even desirable.

At some point, whoever is left realizes they’re on their own. If something goes wrong, there’s no one there to help.

It’s not a huge problem when you’re dealing with a school or college project, but it’s an entirely different story if you’re running a business or a corporation. All you need is a, and a good support infrastructure. Most proprietary software companies offer advanced end-user assistance with dedicated technical support resources, regular software updates, and end-user training (live, online and on-demand). Proprietary software publishers also offer user forums and support their communities to engage customers, and deliver better support. Looking under the hood Not surprisingly, are mostly based on web technologies. In fact, these products are rarely, if ever, written in native programming languages.

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Native software development requires a lot of time and resources. It’s much more involved than developing interpreted software based on web technologies. Most open source software publishers lack the necessary resources to develop in native programming languages.

They don’t always have access to a dedicated team of engineers, so they leverage web technologies to fast-track the development process. It may be quicker and cheaper than the alternative, but the resulting products can’t compete head-to-head with native software. Native software is more reliable and efficient because it’s code addresses the playback device’s processor and other hardware components directly. It’s why native software has less tendency to exhibit memory leaks, and is generally more stable. This also explains why most native software is proprietary.