Open Source Software
What is Open Source Software ?
Open Source Software is software that is supplied with full source code.
The definition of Open Source as given by the Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org is as follows:
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Free Redistribution: anyone can sell or give away the software as part of a distribution without requiring a fee Source Code: the program must include un-obfuscated source code and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form Derived Works: the license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software. Integrity of the Author's Source Code: The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: freedom to use it for any purpose Distribution of License The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: the rights attached to the program must not depend on the being part of a particular software distribution The License Must Not Restrict Other Software: the license must not place restrictions on other software distributed along with it License must be Technology-Neutral |
Basics
The basic principle is that users must be provided with, or have easy access to, the source code of the software and be allowed to modify that code for their own and other people's use. Of the various licenses available, the most popular is the GNU General Public License (usually called the GPL) by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Richard Stallman started the GNU project in 1984 and founded the FSF in 1985.
GPL is not the only open source license. Here's a list of OSI approved licensesWhy is Open Source Software important ?
The basic idea behind open source is very simple: when programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs.
How can Open Source Software flourish when it's free ?
OSS is developed by a large community. Without the Internet it probably wouldn't exist. Making money with OSS is done in different ways than with the usual commercial software: through publications, books, support, training, installation, donations etc.
Although many Open Source applications are
free, as in available without cost, the ideas behind Open Source Software focus mainly on being
free, as in freedom.
Benefits over closed source software ?
The following benefits of OSS are not necessarily true in all cases but are being used by the open source community to promote Open Source Software
- OSS is more secure
- OSS is more stable
- OSS is less costly
- OSS is more likely to conform to standards
Open Source applications everyone knows ;-)
- Mac OS-X's Darwin (FreeBSD)
- Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird
- PHP
- Open Office
- Processing
- Pure Data
- Audacity
- Supercollider
- Vim/MacVim
Other successful Open Source applications
- Apache webserver: roughly 60% of all websites are said to be served by Apache...
- BIND Berkeley Internet Name Domain
- VLC media player cross-platform media player and streaming server
- MPlayer The Movie Player
- GNU C/C++ compiler
- Linux: an Open Source implementation of the UNIX operating system
- FreeBSD: another Open Source UNIX system
- Mac OS-X commercial operating system based on BSD UNIX (which is Open Source Software)
- Gnome graphic desktop. Some say it's better than Windows
- KDE graphic desktop. Some like it better than Gnome