Open Source

AFA systems has developed and develops the majority of its projects - sophisticated and distributed applications on the network - with Open Source technology.

Why do we choice Open Source? Not for the lower cost: the key point is to supply - through the availability of the source codes - solutions that can be totally controlled and guaranteed, if needed, until the most internal levels of the code.

Few years ago, in 1994, we started to deal with Open Source; we were a group of pioneers that came from various Unix dialects. We loved the idea to have all the source code of our projects.

At the time, the Linux OS ran on three 5”1/4 floppy disks (do you remember them?); the IP protocol was still looking for some basic concept. It was so a new matter that we were asked for clarification by customs, when we received the first Linux distribution on a CDROM, from the US.

We have come a long way. In past years, we felt ourselves as being “missionary preachers” in unfaithful lands. The “Certified Professional” professed other beliefs. Yet why so convinced about Unix/Linux?

Unix was for us always a sort of “semi-finished good”, available to be forged, with the techniques of the concurrent programming, in the fields of the telecommunication applications and devices, SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems and process controls. This is what we are continuing to do with Unix/Linux.