Open-source software

Open source software refers to computer software and the availability of its source code as open source under an open source license to study, change, and improve its design.

Related Topics:
Computer software - Source code - Open source - Open source license

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A group of individuals presented "open source" to relabel free software as open-source software, for such software to become more mainstream in the corporate world. Software developers may want to publish their software with an open-source software license, so that anybody may also develop the same software or understand how it works. Open-source software generally allows anybody to make a new version of the software, port it to new operating systems and processor architectures, share it with others or market it. The advantage of open source is to let the product be more understandable, modifiable, duplicatable, or simply accessible, while it is still very marketable.

Related Topics:
Free software - Open-source software license

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The Open Source Definition, notably, presents an open-source philosophy, and further defines a boundary on the usage, modification and redistribution of open-source software. Software licenses grant rights to users which would otherwise be prohibited by copyright. These include rights on usage, modification and redistribution. Several open-source software licenses have qualified within the boundary of the Open Source Definition. The most prominent example is the popular GNU General Public License (GPL). While open source presents a way to broadly make the sources of a product publicly accessible, the open-source licenses allow the authors to fine tune such access.

Related Topics:
Open Source Definition - Software licenses - GNU General Public License

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