Abstract
Many industries, both within and outside healthcare, have benefited from the adoption of open-source software and open standards. Notable examples of this include the use of open-source languages, such as Python and Perl to perform both chemo- and bioinformatics work. In parallel industries, most of the world's largest Web sites operate on open-source software both in the operating system (Linux) and the Web server software (Apache).
However, the field of laboratory automation has neither adopted nor created a great deal of standards and has also not taken advantage of the wide range of open-source software available. This article introduces open-source software and discusses the benefits to a wider world and the possible advantages to the field of drug discovery and laboratory automation.
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