When something is publicly accessible, can be changed and shared when needed, it is termed ‘open source.’ This term emanated from the universe of software development and it is meant to label a specific approach to the creation of computer programs. Open source nowadays seems to be an umbrella term for other embryonic contents it is pregnant of.
What is Open Source Software?
This software is one with software source code which can be inspected, modified and enhanced by anybody. Most computer users do not see the source code. This is the code that skilled computer programmers use to change the manner of functionality of a piece of software like a program or application.
What is the Difference between Open Source Software and Other Types of Software?
There is some software that has source code which can only be modified by the person, team organisation that created. This kind of software is called “proprietary or close source” software.
It is only the original proprietary authors can legitimately copy, inspect, and change the software. Using proprietary software requires that computer users have to agree that they are not going to do anything with the software which has not been permitted by the software authors. Examples of proprietary software are Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office.
The open source software makes a difference as the authors enable the availability of the source code to others that would love to the code, copy it, and learn from it edit it or share it. Examples of open source software are LibreOffice and GNU Image Manipulation Program.
As it is with the proprietary software, the terms of a license must be accepted by users of open source software. However the legal terms of open source licences has a dramatic difference from those of proprietary.
Is Open Source Software only Important to Computer Programmers?
Well, the answer is no because it is open to both programmers and non-programmers. The reason is, the early inventors built a chunk of the internet on open source technologies like, Linux operating system and other Apache Web Server application. It should be mentioned that any internet user today benefits from open source software.
The computer that helps you in checking mails, chatting, using mobile games etc are located in faraway places that users cannot neither nor visibly locate. This is why these computers are called ‘remote computers’ by some people.
Nowadays, more people use the ‘remote computers for the tasks they could have ordinarily performed on their local devices. For instance, they use online data processing, email management as well as software that edits image and those software are not downloaded and installed on the Personal Computer.
Cloud computing is what some people use in the place of remote computing because it involves some of the things remote computing does.
Linux the is chief of the programming languages as it gives you what you want your PC to give to you. The programme even has a far long other enjoyable options.