What Are Open Sources?
Free software -- what a great concept. Over the years, the idea of open-source -- free to use -- software has grown and built a rich culture. Linux, FireFox, Apache and Java form the foundations of the Internet and anyone can download them all and not pay a cent. So how did the concept of free software come about? The answer is a bit complicated.
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The Early Days
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The story of free software goes back to the 1970s, the early days of the desktop computer. The Altair and IMSAI computers had little functionality and part of the fun was creating the low-level software to make them run. As the machines grew in complexity, a few brave souls started businesses that created and marketed software for these new machines. Others, comfortable with the idea that software should be shared, continued to swap or give away their works.
GNU and GNU Public License
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In the mid-1980s, Richard Stallman, a programmer at MIT, created a set of enhanced and improved UNIX utility programs. He called this set of programs GNU, an abbreviation for "GNU is Not UNIX," and distributed them as what he called "free software." Along with the source code, he created a software license agreement that he called the GNU Public License, or GPL. This license stated that the programs could be used, improved, given away or sold to others with the caveat that the source code must be included and that any derived work also be distributed under the GPL.
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Linus Torvalds and Linux
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In the early 1990s, Linus Torvalds, a university student in Finland, created the low-level components of a UNIX-like operating system while experimenting with the multitasking features of the Intel 386. His work was combined with a number of the GNU components to create a full-featured operating system called Linux that ran on an i386-based PC. Since the GNU components were bundled into the most popular distributions, the GPL license became a mandatory part of the package.
Growth of Open Source
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Linux appeared at a fortunate time. The Internet was just coming into its own and most of the network was formed on UNIX machines. The easiest way for hobbyists to get onto the Web was through Linux. Developers soon banded together to start new open-source projects to create the foundations of the Web as we know it today. Apache, Mozilla, mySQL and Java all have roots in open source.
Benefits of Open Source
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Although the obvious benefit of open source is its price, there are several other factors that make this a good choice. Open source means that the source code must be available to be read, compiled, modified or enhanced. Open-source projects constantly grow and adapt as needs change. In many cases, code bases fork, becoming multiple packages, each addressing different needs. Many projects now have corporate backing with both commercial and free versions, offering far more stability and support.
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