What is Opensource ?

Posted June 18, 2022

Opensource

Let’s talk about opensource today!!

The idea behind opensource is that everything should be available for anybody to go ahead and use and modify. That means it is build on a collaborative approach to problem solving. If you see something wrong you don’t have to just report an issue and hope someone fixes it, you can go straight in and do it yourself. So now if you have a piece of software you can shape it to ensure that your goals are met.

Browsers, medias , operating systems- its everywhere. Most of the architecture of the internet itself runs in opensource platform.

Many huge companies depend on opensource and companies hire developers to use and contribute to opensource software because it accelerates their works. These companies then contribute back to a wider communities and encourage others to do so as well.

Why Opensource?

Lower software cost
High quality software
Abundant support
No vendor Lock-in
Scaling and consolidation

and many more

Security

Now you are wondering about its security. If anyone can poke around the code then presumable that makes it insecure, but that’s not it!!! This transparency makes is exactly what makes most opensource software much more secure than other kind. Instead of blindly trusting the software that you are using is secure, you can actually check that it is and do something about it if its not properly secured.

Free

Now as you can understand everyone can make their contributions to the code, so does that mean you get you license fee? Nope, because there is no license fee!! With some notable exceptions opensource software is free to use and secure. This is beyond money, because the real value in opensource software comes from a community surrounding it- usually made up of talented and passionate people contributing for any number of reasons.