bashton Business Focused Open Source

Who are Bashton?

We have a proven track record working with a wide variety of companies

Founded in 2004, Bashton Ltd is a company dedicated to providing top quality consultancy and support for Linux and Open Source software. The company was initially founded to meet the needs of Internet Service Providers, primarily building large, highly scalable and highly available web and email clusters. Whilst many of our customers still come from the ISP industry, we quickly came to realise that many other sectors could benefit from the technologies we were deploying. Today, we have a proven track record working with a wide variety of companies in industries as diverse as insurance, engineering, logistics and NGOs.

Why use Bashton?

Bashton staff have been supporting and managing Linux systems since 1995. The majority of our staff have a background working for Internet Service Providers, whilst others have worked managing IT systems in fields such as higher education and retail. Our staff are unified by their passion for Linux and Open Source technology. We actively contribute to Open Source software, with high-profile members of the Debian and Exim projects working for us as full-time staff.

What is Open Source?

Open Source means that the customer has access to the source code - essentially, the recipe the computer follows to run the application.

Open Source software is more secure, stable and efficient than traditional software

We believe Open Source software is more secure, stable and efficient than traditional software because it more closely follows the already well established scientific principles of peer review. Many thousands of companies and individuals around the world, including names such as Intel, HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and of course ourselves, create and contribute open source projects.
Almost all of the Internet's highest profile companies use Open Source software, including Amazon, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

If Open Source software is any good, why is it free?

Firstly, let's dispel a myth - using Open Source software isn't free. The purchase price of a piece of software is rarely the largest part of the cost of using software. Whilst Open Source software is certainly cheaper to run than proprietary software, the lower cost is not the only or even primary reason to use Open Source. As well as being more stable and secure, Open Source software is inherently more flexible that traditional software - if you don't like a feature you can change it, or at least pay someone to change it for you. With proprietary software, the best you can do is request a feature and hope that the large software company you bought it from pays some attention - usually a slim hope. Running Open Source software can give your company a real competitive advantage, because it can be tailored to the individual needs of your business.