<philosophy, legal> A method and philosophy for software
licensing and distribution designed to encourage use and
improvement of software written by volunteers by ensuring that
anyone can copy the source code and modify it freely.
The term "open source" is now more widely used than the
earlier term "free software" (promoted by the Free Software
Foundation) but has broadly the same meaning - free of
distribution restrictions, not necessarily free of charge.
There are various open source licenses available.
Programmers can choose an appropriate license to use when
distributing their programs.
The Open Source Initiative promotes the Open Source
Definition.
The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
was a seminal paper describing the open source phenomenon.
Open Sources - O'Reilly book with full text online.
Articles from ZDNet.
(1999-12-29)
Nearby terms:
Open Shortest-Path First « Open Shortest-Path First Interior Gateway Protocol « Open Software Foundation « open source » Open Source Definition » Open Source Initiative » Open source license
