The term ‘open source’ software refers to software that provides the source code. The source code and the information that is kind of related to the software, which are protected by the copyright holders, are made available to all users, who can then edit the software, also in some cases to actually redistribute the software.
Mostly, open source software are developed or modified publicly sometimes as a team or individuals. When mentioning ‘open source’ software, the first thing that comes to mind is Linus Torvalds, who was the founder of Linux, a UNIX based operating. People believe that if Torvalds had not made it available for free, it would not become as it is not in the market. Examples of open source software are Linux, which is an operating system, Perl, PHP, and Python, which are computer programming languages, Apache, which is server software, and OpenOffice, which is a desktop application.
It is hard to say if open source is better than proprietary software because they are both beneficial. Proprietary software developers’ motivation is profit, so they have to work as hard as possible to make sure their product sells, otherwise they could lose their jobs. For example, Microsoft’s software has to reach a certain quality before it is put on the market. Open source developers do not have this motivation, so the programs that they build will not be to the best of their abilities.
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