Open source software

Open Source Software

Open source software (pronounced /ˈoʊpən ˈsɔːrs ˈsɒftwɛər/) is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

Etymology

The term "open source" was coined in 1998 by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), a non-profit organization that promotes the use of open source software. The term was intended to be a marketing term for free software, a concept that had been around since the 1980s. The "open" in open source refers to the accessibility of the source code, while "source" refers to the origin of the software.

Related Terms

• Free Software: Software that can be freely used, modified, and distributed.
• Proprietary Software: Software that is owned by an individual or a company (usually the one that developed it). There are almost always major restrictions on its use, and its source code is almost always kept secret.
• Source Code: The list of human-readable instructions that a programmer writes—often in a word processing program—when he is developing a program.
• Software License: A legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software.
• Open Source Initiative: A non-profit organization that promotes the use of open source software.

See Also

• List of open-source software
• History of free and open-source software
• Open-source software development
• Open-source license
• Open-source model

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