2. 2. 1  Software, a basic need in any company

Who are the clients of software companies? Nowadays, potentially any company. As Nicolas Carr points out in "IT doesn't matter", ICTs have been incorporated as an essential tool for all companies, just as nowadays all companies are connected to the mains to light up their offices and power their machines, they are all equipped with telephones, or they all use cars and trucks on the motorways to transport their raw materials and products.

Additional reading

N. Carr (1 April 2004). "Does IT matter?". The Economist. <http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/articles/matter.html>

When Carr writes in his article that "ICTs no longer count", what he means is that a company no longer has a competitive advantage just because it uses them, since all companies now have access to them.

A commonly cited case in this regard are the commercial airlines that developed the first ticket booking software. At the time, this software gave them an important edge over their rivals. Today, all commercial aviation companies have a website where we can make bookings and purchase plane tickets, so this software no longer constitutes an advantage for a company over any other.

This evolution in the use of ICTs can be an advantage for free software development in that it reduces the possibility for companies to get carried away with the idea that having proprietary software for their internal processes can give them a competitive edge. Given that any company can obtain software with similar capabilities, it is probably best to use free software that can incorporate the developments made in other activities and tailor them to the specific needs of the company.