Establishing Ethos on Proprietary and Open Source Software Websites

Abstract

The increasing prominence and variety of open source software (OSS) threaten to upset conventional approaches to software development and marketing. While a tremendous amount of scholarship has been published on the differences between proprietary and OSS development, little has been discussed regarding the effect of rhetorical appeals used to promote either type of software. This chapter offers just such an examination, focusing its scrutiny on the websites for three pairs of competitors (operating system, Web browser, and image manipulation program). The means by which the OSS websites promote their programs provide a significant set of insights into the potential trajectory of OSS development and its widespread public acceptance, in terms of both its initial philosophy and its perceived alternative nature to traditional software products and models.