ABOUT ARROWDOT
Arrowdot was founded with the vision of making open source software easily accessible to business users.
We do this by packaging solutions into pre-configured downloadable appliances, requiring zero configuration.
At ArrowDot, our mission is two-fold:
-
1) identify open source products with
the potential to add tremendous
business benefit
-
2) break down barriers to adoption
The open source movement has led to the proliferation of brilliant software solutions. Even where proprietary
alternatives exist, the open source products are often superior.
In some instances open source solutions have managed to find mass adoption and grown to positions of prominence.
A great example of such a success story is the Firefox web browser.
There remains however, far too many instances where wonderfully innovative and technically superb open
source solutions live on in obscurity.
ABOUT OPEN SOURCE
In essence, open source software is software for which the human-readable source code is available to use,
change, and improve the software. It is usually developed in a public, collaborative manner.
The primary business benefits of open source software over proprietary
software are:
Open source software is free. The philosophy behind open source software is that it is an exchange
of ideas and techniques among professionals. By sharing knowledge, everyone who participates benefits.
Open source software is thought of as a service, rather than a product.
The best open source software is extremely efficient, capable of running on older hardware, reducing
the investment required even futher.
In most cases existing hardware can be used incurring no hardware cost.
Open source projects are supported by a community of users and developers. Any open source
product with a significant user base has online user groups providing support on practically
any support issue that has been encountered to date.
New issues are quickly resolved by the members of the open source community who take great
pride in the technical excellence of their creation.
The motivation for the existence of any great open source project is not monetary, it is excellence.
Since nobody owns open source software, there is no risk of its proprietors going out of business.
Open source projects live on indefinitely.
ABOUT VIRTUALIZATION
Virtualization is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally
changing the way that people compute.
In essence, virtualization transforms hardware into software.
ArrowDot virtual appliances are professionally configured software solutions that readily operate
on industry standard hardware.
Appliances are typically made up of a number of different software components that are pre-installed
and configured to work together. The end user is completely shielded from this complex
under-the-hood design.
Since software appliances are pre-configured, there is no need to expose our users
to any confusing technical terminology.
ArrowDot implements appliances on small footprint virtual machines, running light operating systems.
This eliminates the need for new hardware to run your new device.
ArrowDot leverages virtualization technology provided by VMWare, the world’s leading provider of virtualization
for x86-based servers and desktops.
"ArrowDot is all about beautifully packaged open source solutions"
"open source software is developed in a public, collaborative manner"
"virtualization transforms hardware into software"
"open source software is free"
"excellence is the motivation for the existence of any great open source project"
"open source projects live on indefinitely"
"no confusing technical terminology"
"various components are pre-installed and configured to work together"
"eliminates the need for new hardware"
"VMWare is the world’s leading provider of virtualization"
"open source software is very efficient, capable of running on older hardware"
