Many programmers often use open source software today. Open source software is computer software that other programmers can study, alter, and improve upon by viewing the source code. Once the programmer makes his modifications to it, he is free to distribute the modified version.
How did the concept of open source software begin? It may have begun with a group of people back in 1998. Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin, John Hall, Sam Ockman, Christine Peterson, and Eric S. Raymond were in a meeting about the announcement that Netscape would release the source code of their popular Navigator software. Rather than call the source code "free," they felt the term "open source" was more appropriate. Yet, some still argue that the concept of open source software has been around as long as the Internet itself (developed in 1969).
Developers could add an open source software license to their software when they published it and anyone could make a new version of it. This included both making the new software better and making it available to different operating systems. The main goal behind open source software was to make the software as good as it could be. By opening it up to others, the software could be more marketable because developers could tweak it to their preferences, which might suit many more users. The open source software license grants other developers the rights to modify the source code - something that most licenses prohibit. Some developers still refuse to see any difference between software labeled as "free" and that labeled as "open source." However, just because software is free, does not mean it is free to alter. There is still much software created today that is given away as free, but that merely means it costs nothing, not that another developer can take the source code and do with it what he will.
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