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Most software sales models are based on a licence being sold. If you want to access Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, you need to buy a licence. You are a consumer, you pay your money and access the product.

The opposite to this model is the Open Source movement, which advocates the development of software ‘that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone’ (Opensource.org, n.d., p. 1). The developers create and share free software and the rules state that when you download it, if you adapt it to incorporate additional features you re-share it across the Open Source platform. The software is still accessed by a licence, so you can be advised of updates. This online community is self-managed and self-regulated so no one truly owns the software.

There are many competitors to Microsoft's Office packages, including: Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice and NeoOffice. These packages may not have the full functionality of a full MS Office suite, but most users only take advantage of a small percentage of the tools and they are popular with many businesses.