What does Open Source mean?

     There is a lots of things that can solve the problem in the Software/ Web Developement and one of them is Open Source Software.

    How does it feel to personally contribute to the development of a world renowned software Does too many cooks spoil the broth? Or do they make for a product that is distinctly more evolved?

  Softwares are mostly available in ready-to-run, ‘compiled’ versions, where the original program code created by the developer – called the source code – is nearly impossible to view, edit or modify. This helps commercial software manufacturers protect their codes from being copied, giving them proprietary control over their product’s quality and features.

     In stark contrast, an Open Source software comes with its own source code that one can easily modify or customize as per one’s own requirement.

 

  

     The reason? Developers of Open Source software believe that critical modifications by professionals can actually improve the quality and features of the product.

For a software be called an Open Source software, it must meet certain criteria:

1. The program must be freely available
2. The Source code must be included.
3. Anyone must be able to modify the source code.
4. Modified versions can be redistributed.
5. The license must not require the exclusion of other software, or interfere with the operation of other software.

      Linux, the toast of Open Source softwares. Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland, developed a new operating system in 1991.

 

 

(Read more about this)
Based on Minix, a derivative of Unix, it was christened Linux, and released (ver 0.02) under the GNU General Public License.

     

     Linux was freely downloaded and edited by programmers. Over the next three years, Torvalds incorporated many of the changes into the baseline version and released Linux version 1.0 in 1994. Other examples of popular open source softwares are Mozilla (Netscape browser core), Apache (Web server), PERL (Web scripting language) and PNG (graphics file format).