What is Open Source?
Open source software is software like any other. However it is distinguished by its license, or terms of use, which guarantees certain freedoms, in contrast to closed proprietary software which restricts these rights. Open source software guarantees the right to access and modify the source code, and to use, reuse and redistribute the software, all with no royalty or other costs. In some cases, there can be an obligation to share improvements with all.
Open Source software is a software whose source code are distributed freely and openly. Open source describes computer software for which:
- The source code is available to the end-user.
- The source code can be modified by the end-user.
- There are no restriction on redistribution or use.
- The licensing conditions are intended to facilitate continued re-used and wide availability of the software in both commercial and non-commercial context.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) maintains the Open Source Definition (OSD), and is recognised globally as the authority on certifying whether a license is truly open source. There is no reason why any public body would deviate from the OSD and the OSI certifications of true open source licenses. Whilst there are many open source licenses, the majority of commonly used software uses the same handful of common licenses. This means that the legal and commercial overhead for understanding and managing open source licenses is significantly reduced.
It is common for the open computing community to distinguish between ―free‖ meaning zero-price, and "free" meaning the liberty and guarantees discussed above. To help distinguish the two, the term "libre" is increasingly used for the latter.
There are a variety of licence models for open source, where each licence model has specific terms for the use and modification of code. For this reason, it is important to understand both the specifics of the open source licence in question and how the Department intends to use and redistribute any modified OSS. 12 The most widely known models are:
a. GPL version3, and version 2 is still widely used
b. GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL)
c. BSD Licence
d. Mozilla Public Licence (MPL)
e. Apache Licence
Post a Comment