What is Open Source?
The term “Open source” refers to any program whose source code is freely available to use or modify. Most open source projects are available without restrictions, and are developed by various people as a public collaboration.
Open Source is also a certification mark that belongs to Open Source Initiative (OSI). All the developers who are eager to create a freely shared software available for further distribution and improvement, have to conform to the Open Source Definition by OSI. In this case, they can use the Open Source trademark for their product. In a nutshell, the Definition model of distribution is:
- Open Source software can be redistributed to anyone without any restriction.
- The source code must be free and available for everyone.
- To have a license, the software must be improved to newer version or carry a name different from the original one.
One of the most famous open source software products is the Linux – free operating system, which has been modified by users all over the world. Besides Linux, there are other Open source based software, such as: Mozilla browser, Apache web server, PNG graphics file format etc.