Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Open Source Initiative (
www.opensource.org)
is a nonprofit corporation that
promotes a common definition of open source. In August 2013, its Web site listed the
names of 70 software licenses that met its definition of open source.
Advocates of open-source software describe five beneficial consequences of open-source
licensing.
The first benefit of open source is that it gives everyone using a program the oppor-
tunity to improve it. People can fix bugs, add enhancements, or adapt the program for
entirely new uses. Software evolves more quickly when more people are working on it.
Rapid evolution of open-source software leads to the second benefit: new versions of
open-source programs appear much more frequently than new versions of commercial
programs. Users of open-source programs do not have to wait as long for bug fixes and
patches [126].
A third benefit of open source is that it eliminates the tension between obeying
copyright law and helping others. Suppose you legally purchased a traditional license
to use a program and your friend asks you for a copy. You must choose between helping
your friend and conforming to the license agreement. If the program had an open-source
license, you would be free to distribute copies of it to anyone who wanted it.
The fourth benefit is that open-source programs are the property of the entire
user community, not just a single vendor. If a vendor selling a proprietary program
decides not to invest in further improvements to it, the user community is stuck. In
contrast, a user community with access to the source code to a program may continue
its development indefinitely [126].
The fifth benefit of open source is that it shifts the focus from manufacturing to
service, which can result in customers getting better support for their software [126].
If source code were distributed freely, companies would make money by providing
support, and the companies that provided the best support would be rewarded in the
marketplace [127].
Open-source software is a key part of the Internet's infrastructure, and an increasing
number of open-source applications are reaching the desktop. Here are a few examples
of highly successful programs distributed under open-source licenses:
.
BIND provides DNS (domain name service) for the entire Internet.
.
Apache runs about half of the world's Web servers.
.
The most widely used program for moving email about the Internet is the open-
source program sendmail.
.
The Android operating system is the world's best-selling smartphone platform
[128].
.
Firefox and Chrome are the world's second and third most popular Web browsers,
respectively [129].
