What is open source?

Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration.[1]

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.[2]

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:[3]

  • Free Redistribution
  • Source Code Included Program
  • Permission of Derived Works Publication
  • Integrity of The Author's Source Code
  • No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
  • No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
  • Distribution of License
  • License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
  • License Must Not Restrict Other Software
  • License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Rich References:

Advantages of open source software:

  • Availability of the source code and the right to modify it
  • Right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code
  • Right to use the software in any way
  • There is no one with the power to restrict in a unilateral way how the software is used
  • There is no single entity on which the future of the software depends
  • No "black boxes" are possible
  • There is always the possibility of "forking" (alternative code)
  • No per-copy fees can be asked for modified versions
  • There are fewer conflicting priorities due to marketing pressures
  • It provides a new forum for democratic action !

What is GNU? [4]

GNU (pronounced /gnu/) is a computer operating system composed entirely of free software. Its name is a recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix, which was chosen because its design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and by not containing any Unix code. GNU was founded by Richard Stallman and was the original focus of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

The project to develop GNU is known as the GNU Project, and programs released under the auspices of the GNU Project are called GNU packages or GNU programs. The system's basic components include the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU Binary Utilities (binutils), the bash shell, the GNU C library (glibc), and GNU Core Utilities (coreutils).

As of 2007, GNU is being actively developed. Although most components have been completed long ago and have been in production use for a decade or more, its official kernel, GNU Hurd, is incomplete and not all GNU components work with it. For this reason, most GNU users use the third-party Linux kernel. While Linux has not been officially adopted as the kernel of GNU, GNU does officially include other third party software such as the X.Org release of the X Window System and the TeX typesetting system. Many GNU programs have also been ported to numerous other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, BSD variants, Solaris and Mac OS.

The plan for the GNU operating system was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Richard Stallman. Software development began on January 5, 1984, when Stallman quit his job at Massachusetts Institute of Technology so that they could not claim ownership or interfere with distributing GNU as free software. According to Stallman, the name was inspired by various plays on words, including the song The Gnu.

The goal was to bring a wholly free software operating system into existence. Stallman wanted computer users to be free, as most were in the 1960s and 1970s: free to study the source code of the software they use, free to share the software with other people, free to modify the behaviour of the software, and free to publish their modified versions of the software. This philosophy was published in March 1985 as the GNU Manifesto.

Open Source Technical References: