Open source usually refers to software that is released with source code under a license that ensures that derivative works will also be available as source code, protects certain rights of the original authors, and prohibits restrictions on how the software can be used or who can use it.
How Open Source Software Is Developed
One or more developers--meaning people who have the skills to create software--get an idea about creating software to solve a problem.For those new to the idea of open source or unfamiliar with the way software gets developed, here's how it works most of the time:
- The developers start writing code to create a solution. This is frequently called "scratching an itch."
- The developers put this code where other developers can find out about it, download it, and play with it. There are many locations, such as SourceForge.com, where people post their projects.
- Usually the source code is published under one of several popular open source licenses that ensure that the source code and any derivative works remain open source.
- Through an informal process of sharing ideas, fiddling with each others' code, and trial and error, the software gets better and better, sometimes changing direction to solve new problems as new people discover the software.
- At some point, the software gets finished or doesn't. It becomes popular, stays obscure, or fades away. Programs like Linux and Apache have had thousands of contributors. Other projects have been created by one or two people.
- As time goes on, developers come and go, and projects become active or dormant.
A huge amount of amazing software has been created through this loose process. While much of open source development has focused on creating tools for software developers, an increasing amount of effort is being put into creating programs to solve less technical problems like publishing blogs or keeping track of skydiving activity.
Free Software and Open Source
Now that you are really hep to what open source means, it is time for some inside baseball. Many people do not know that the term open source came out of a sort of schism. The roots of open source as it exists today started in a concept created by Richard Stallman called free software. The Free Software Foundation and the GNU project, which Stallman founded, created much of the legal and software infrastructure that made possible projects like Linux and most of the rest of the open source that exists today. Stallman has tried to emphasize this by asking that people refer to the operating system as GNU/Linux.
Richard Stallman is famous for his brilliance, his strong opinions, and for the saying "free software is free as in speech, not as in beer." But, like many mavericks, Richard Stallman has rubbed some people the wrong way. Some felt that his strident attitudes about certain subjects, like intellectual property, and his leadership style were driving people away from using free software. A group of people including Eric Raymond, Tim O'Reilly, and several others came together and started using the term open source instead of free software. This took hold, although many people use the terms separately, or use the combined term free and open source software, abbreviated as FOSS.
