Open source software is a way for the software community to share ideas. It has been around for a long time and has helped foster the growth of many parts of the computer community.
The Internet, in particular, was created almost solely from open source. Many of the main applications, particularly early on, were all open source. It can be said that without open source, the Internet that we know today would not exist.
But what is it?
Open source software is software that is created by and owned by an individual or group of individuals. It is copyrighted. This software is then freely distributed along with the source code and license agreement.
As part of the license, the user can give the software away or sell it, on the conditions that the source code, license agreement and a provision that the recipient can also distribute the software are included.
The user can also modify the source code. This modified software can also be distributed with the above conditions being applied. In addition, the recipient needs to know that the original software was modified.
The last three paragraphs were a quick overview of some of the important points of the GNU General Public License (GPL), the most common license in the open source community. Other licenses I've seen are similar. Some give the user more control, others less.
Open source is also about choice and options. You are not forced to use one vendor's solution to the problem. In fact, if you don't like the choice open source gives, you are free to change the program to meet your needs.
Using and open source solution to one problem does not force you to adopt a similar choice to other problems. You are free to choose.
Proprietary solutions are never as customizable as open source and often dictate what can be used with them, limiting the choice.
Since open source is created by many different individuals, there is no way that an open source product be used to leverage a monopoly for a different program.
In other words, if Linux gained a monopoly on the desktop, since there is no company that owns Linux, there would be no fear that it could be used to leverage a monopoly in another area.
More immediate, Apache having a majority share of the servers on the Internet does not force people to use Perl for dynamic content, or Linux as their server OS.
When the GPL refers to free software, the are referring to freedom, not price.
I open source software I use the most are Linux, Perl and the Gimp. I will be writting more about these later..
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