What Is the Meaning of Open-Source Applications?
Open-source software, also called "free software," has source code that the user can inspect or modify to meet his needs. This makes it the opposite of copyrighted, proprietary software. Since 2000, open-source software has started to catch on with mainstream computer users.
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Free as in...
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Open-source advocate Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, disdains the term "open source," preferring to call it free software. But while nearly all open-source software costs nothing to download, not all gratis software is open source. Software users often call open-source software "free as in speech."
Copyleft
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The GNU General Public License (GPL), or "copyleft," allows the user to do whatever he wants with the source code, as long as the original is made available. This is in contrast to the End User License Agreement that comes with most copyrighted software.
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Advantages
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A computer user can take the source code to a program or operating system and adapt it for his own purposes. Under terms of the GPL, the user can make changes, rebrand it, and give it away or sell it. Because of the open nature of the software, bug fixes usually come pretty quickly from volunteers. Because it is free, there is no such thing as pirated open-source software.
Going Mainstream
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Mozilla's popular Firefox web browser, which developed a reputation as a secure browser, has open-source code though the trademark itself is copyrighted. OpenOffice has gained popularity as a cross-platform alternative to Microsoft Office.
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References
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