Open Source Software

Open Source Software (OSS) is provided with a license that gives
the end user the right to use it freely for private or commercial use.
You also have the right to inspect and even modify the underlying
source code. You can give away or sell the original version you
received or one with your modification, provided that you then in
turn pass on the modified source code so that others can benefit              
from the changes you have made. This last clause protects the
developer's work from unfair exploitation by others, while allowing
the source code to be released to the community. You are not
required to pay royalties to previous developers, but you are still
permitted to charge money for the sale of OSS. This disc may
have been given to you by a friend; or sold to you for a small fee,
and both are permitted.

If you have no interest in source code, you may ask why the availability
of this matters. One answer is that the release of source allows
external observers to inspect the true functioning of the program,
which means that you can be confident that the program treats your
private data with respect. A real problem with proprietary software
can be that your data is locked in to a software's proprietary file
format, which means that you may eventually be forced to upgrade
to newer versions of that software to retain access to your data. This
does not happen with OSS, because when the source code for
opening and saving files is available, a third party can easily write an
import filter for the next generation of software, ensuring that your data
will always be available. Finally, the release of source code has in
some cases spawned large communities of volunteer developers who
have in turn provided the world with highly useful, and entirely free
software such as Linux, OpenOffice, and Mozilla. These are then
available free of charge to schools or anyone else who may not have a
large budget available for software. So, you can see that the freedom
of software is important for everyone, not just software developers.

There is a staggering number of OSS (Open Source Software) projects
out there. A typical source lists over 30.000 projects. There
are also a vast number of Shareware and Freeware programs available that
you can freely download from the net. However these do not qualify as OSS,
because you do not have the right to modify the underlying source code.
Usually you are not even able to inspect the source code, and often
restrictions are placed your use of the program, such as non-commercial
use only.

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. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow
pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

We in the open source community have learned that this rapid
evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional
closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the
source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits.

Open Source Software exists to make this case to the commercial world.

Open source software is an idea whose time has finally come. For
twenty years it has been building momentum in the technical cultures
that built the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now it's breaking out
into the commercial world, and that's changing all the rules.
Are you ready?

Portions borrowed fro OSI and TheOpenCD.