What is Open Source Software?
Open source software is a relatively new phenomenon where software systems and their source code is given away freely. Most open source today comprises large-scale distributed object-oriented software systems. Often these systems are Java based and platform independent. Licenses may be required when redistributing this source code as part of a commercial system and support may be available for a price, often only affordable by corporations. Email distribution lists are also freely available for support. These systems have their market niche and are recently among the most powerful (and best?) systems available. They can be self-supported and installed by most professionals making some of the most powerful object-oriented software systems freely available. This site is now run under full J2EE (JSP/servlet/EJB/database) with open source including Linux, JBoss, and struts. Open Source includes: • Linux operating system. (If you can tell it isn’t Unix (w/bash), you’re an expert). rpmfind.n
Open Source generally refers to a program (or collection of programs) whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open Source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available. By comparison, developers of proprietary (commercial) software have historically not made source code generally available.
