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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Open Source Initiative logo

Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification
and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code,
[1]
design documents,[2] or content of the product. The open source model is a
decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration.[3][4] A
main principle of open source software development is peer production, with
products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the
public. The open source movement in software began as a response to the
limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open source
appropriate technology,[5] and open source drug discovery.[6][7]

Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to a

product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. [8]
[9]
Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers
used a variety of other terms, such as free software, shareware, and public domain
software. Open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet.[10] The open-source
software movement arose to clarify copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer
issues.

Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is
available to the general public for use or modification from its original design. Code is
released under the terms of a software license. Depending on the license terms,
others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to the
community. Many large formal institutions have sprung up to support the
development of the open-source movement, including the Apache Software
Foundation, which supports community projects such as the open-source framework
and the open-source HTTP server Apache HTTP.

History
[edit]
Main article: History of free and open-source software
The sharing of technical information predates the Internet and the personal computer
considerably. For instance, in the early years of automobile development a group of
capital monopolists owned the rights to a 2-cycle gasoline-engine patent originally
filed by George B. Selden.[11] By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize
the industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands, or risk a
lawsuit.

In 1911, independent automaker Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent.
The result was that the Selden patent became virtually worthless and a new
association (which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers
Association) was formed.[11] The new association instituted a cross-licensing
agreement among all US automotive manufacturers: although each company would
develop technology and file patents, these patents were shared openly and without
the exchange of money among all the manufacturers.[11] By the time the US
entered World War II, 92 Ford patents and 515 patents from other companies were
being shared among these manufacturers, without any exchange of money (or
lawsuits).[11]

Early instances of the free sharing of source code include IBM's source releases of
its operating systems and other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and
the SHARE user group that formed to facilitate the exchange of software.[12]
[13]
Beginning in the 1960s, ARPANET researchers used an open "Request for
Comments" (RFC) process to encourage feedback in early telecommunication
network protocols. This led to the birth of the early Internet in 1969.

The sharing of source code on the Internet began when the Internet was relatively
primitive, with software distributed via UUCP, Usenet, IRC, and Gopher. BSD, for
example, was first widely distributed by posts to comp.os.linux on the Usenet, which
is also where its development was discussed. Linux followed in this model.

Open source as a term

[edit]
Open source as a term emerged in the late 1990s by a group of people in the free
software movement who were critical of the political agenda and moral philosophy
implied in the term "free software" and sought to reframe the discourse to reflect a
more commercially minded position.[14] In addition, the ambiguity of the term "free
software" was seen as discouraging business adoption.[15][16] However, the ambiguity
of the word "free" exists primarily in English as it can refer to cost. The group
included Christine Peterson, Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin, Jon Hall, Sam
Ockman, Michael Tiemann and Eric S. Raymond. Peterson suggested "open source"
at a meeting[17] held at Palo Alto, California, in reaction to Netscape's announcement
in January 1998 of a source code release for Navigator.[18] Linus Torvalds gave his
support the following day, and Phil Hughes backed the term in Linux Journal. Richard
Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 1985, quickly
decided against endorsing the term.[17][19] The FSF's goal was to promote the
development and use of free software, which they defined as software that grants
users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the code. This concept is similar
to open source but places a greater emphasis on the ethical and political aspects of
software freedom. Netscape released its source code under the Netscape Public
License and later under the Mozilla Public License.[20]

Raymond was especially active in the effort to popularize the new term. He made the
first public call to the free software community to adopt it in February 1998. [21] Shortly
after, he founded The Open Source Initiative in collaboration with Bruce Perens.[17]

The term gained further visibility through an event organized in April 1998 by
technology publisher . Originally titled the "Freeware Summit" and later known as the
"Open Source Summit",[22] the event was attended by the leaders of many of the most
important free and open-source projects, including Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall, Brian
Behlendorf, Eric Allman, Guido van Rossum, Michael Tiemann, Paul Vixie, Jamie
Zawinski, and Eric Raymond. At that meeting, alternatives to the term "free software"
were discussed. Tiemann argued for "sourceware" as a new term, while Raymond
argued for "open source." The assembled developers took a vote, and the winner
was announced at a press conference the same evening.[22]

Economics
[edit]
Main article: Open-source economics

Area of application of open-source software[23]

Survey on the reasons for using Open Source in 200

Swiss organizations[23]
Some economists agree that open-source is an information good[24] or "knowledge
good" with original work involving a significant amount of time, money, and effort. The
cost of reproducing the work is low enough that additional users may be added at
zero or near zero cost – this is referred to as the marginal cost of a
product. Copyright creates a monopoly so that the price charged to consumers can
be significantly higher than the marginal cost of production. This allows the author to
recoup the cost of making the original work. Copyright thus creates access costs for
consumers who value the work more than the marginal cost but less than the initial
production cost. Access costs also pose problems for authors who wish to create
a derivative work—such as a copy of a software program modified to fix a bug or add
a feature, or a remix of a song—but are unable or unwilling to pay the copyright
holder for the right to do so.

Being organized as effectively a "consumers' cooperative", open source eliminates

some of the access costs of consumers and creators of derivative works by reducing
the restrictions of copyright. Basic economic theory predicts that lower costs would
lead to higher consumption and also more frequent creation of derivative works.
Organizations such as Creative Commons host websites where individuals can file
for alternative "licenses", or levels of restriction, for their works.[25] These self-made
protections free the general society of the costs of policing copyright infringement.

Others argue that since consumers do not pay for their copies, creators are unable to
recoup the initial cost of production and thus have little economic incentive to create
in the first place. By this argument, consumers would lose out because some of the
goods they would otherwise purchase would not be available. In practice, content
producers can choose whether to adopt a proprietary license and charge for copies,
or an open license. Some goods which require large amounts of professional
research and development, such as the pharmaceutical industry (which depends
largely on patents, not copyright for intellectual property protection) are almost
exclusively proprietary, although increasingly sophisticated technologies are being
developed on open-source principles.[26]

There is evidence that open-source development creates enormous value.[27] For

example, in the context of open-source hardware design, digital designs are shared
for free and anyone with access to digital manufacturing technologies
(e.g. RepRap 3D printers) can replicate the product for the cost of materials.[28] The
original sharer may receive feedback and potentially improvements on the original
design from the peer production community.

Many open-source projects have a high economic value. Acco