what does "off-the-shelf" mean? [closed]

I am applying for a job and in my proposal my mentor commented the following. Please explain me what it means.

ME: Finally I found something promising. Please have a look

Mentor: That's a good find Atul :) These are good open source tools and we can use off-the-shelf.

What does 'we can use off the shelf' mean here?

Solution 1:

While "off the shelf" does mean that something is sitting on the shelf in a store (as opposed to "custom made" or "custom ordered") for instant purchase, it also means that it is ready to be used for a task without alteration.

Solution 2:

Off-the-shelf software used to refer to software you bought off-the-shelf in a software store strangely enough. This is clouded today with downloads and not much software being bought from stores, but in the context of your question, the mentor was meaning that you could use software that works straight away (and fit for purpose) without the need for configuration. Out-of-the-box is also used to similar effect.