- published: 22 Jan 2014
- views: 1654
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-source license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.
Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements.
A report by the Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.
The free software movement was launched in 1983. In 1998, a group of individuals advocated that the term free software should be replaced by open source software (OSS) as an expression which is less ambiguous and more comfortable for the corporate world. Software developers may want to publish their software with an open source license, so that anybody may also develop the same software or understand its internal functioning. With open source software, generally anyone is allowed to create modifications of it, port it to new operating systems and processor architectures, share it with others or, in some cases, market it. Scholars Casson and Ryan have pointed out several policy-based reasons for adoption of open source, in particular, the heightened value proposition from open source (when compared to most proprietary formats) in the following categories:
hey, you said it ain't bad to unveil your politics
and hey, you said it ain't bad to show your special tricks
you'll find out, wait patiently and let things take their course
hey, you shouldn't keep back your thoughts and good ideas
and hey, you shouldn't detect your ancient fears
it's yourself who keeps working the idea behind it all
(ref)
and the open source is on your mind
let the inspiration be your satellite
disclose your sources and feel free to gain an insight
hey, you said it ain't bad to believe in openness
and hey, you said it ain't bad to invest in your progress
it so easy to be part of it
hey, you said it ain't bad to unveil your politics
and hey, you said it ain't bad to show your special tricks
you'll find out, wait patiently and let things take their course
share the liberty, I care for the things in me
and pass them all to you
share the sources, enjoy the forces
that spread between us all
Linux is like living in a teepee. No Windows, no Gates, Apache in house.