What Is Open-Source Software?

Date First Published: 23rd July 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn about what open-source software is in this article.

Open-source software is a type of software that is made freely available to use, modify, and distribute to the public for personal, educational, or organisation use without restrictions. This type of software is often collaborative, meaning that any user can take part in the development of it, making the total number of possible contributors unlimited.

Open-source software is the opposite of closed-source software (proprietary software), which is a type of software where the source code is not freely available, modifiable or distributable to the public. Unlike proprietary software whose funding comes from sales, open-source software is often funded through donations and ads.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Open-Source Software

• It is freely useable and distributable to other users. This makes licensing simple and reduces copyright concerns. It also makes users less 'tied in' to the software if they change their minds and decide to use another software program.
• Support and fixes are provided by the community, so there is usually a fast update cycle to fix bugs and security holes.
• Since it is freely modifiable, it can be modified to adapt to the user's needs, like adding or changing a feature.
• Since the source code is freely available, it can be a good training resource for programmers.
• It usually has better compatibility with other applications, particularly other proprietary utility software.

• Since the source code is freely available to anyone, it could lead to users identifying vulnerabilities and exploiting them, which could leave systems vulnerable to security issues that cause harm to computers, including viruses.
• There is often no professional support available and the documentation resources on the developer's website are not always very strong. This means that users may need to rely on the community to answer their questions, who may not be experts and the responses may not always be fast.
• Although open-source software is free, there may be hidden costs involved in support, installation, and training.
• Development can be abandoned as the author is not responsible for keeping the software updated. This could leave users with an outdated software program that is incompatible with newer operating systems and vulnerable to security issues.
• Although some open-source software is easy to use, open-source software usually has poorer usability than proprietary software. Less time is usually spent on the user interface and the software is often designed to meet the needs of the developer without considering usability.

Examples Of Open Source Software

Some examples of open-source software are:

• Apache OpenOffice - OpenOffice is a free and open-source office suite. It contains six applications, including word processing and text editing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing (Draw), a formula editor (Math), and a database management application (Base).
• VLC Media Player - VLC Media Player is a free and open-source multimedia player that allows users to play audio and video content as well as DVDs, CDs, VCDs, and streaming protocols. It was developed by VideoLan and first released on 1st February 2001.
• FileZilla - FileZilla is a free FTP client used for remotely connecting to web servers to upload and download files. It was released on 22nd June 2001 by Tim Kosse and written in C++. FileZilla can be used to connect to a web server by entering the host, username, password, and optionally port number.
• Notepad++ - Notepad ++ is a free and open-source text editor for the Windows operating system. It includes additional features that the standard built-in text editor does not include, such as syntax highlighting, tabbed editing, support for larger files up to 2 GB, bookmarks, and a plugin system for adding features to the software.
• 7-Zip - 7-Zip is a free file archiver utility and is used as an alternative to the built-in compression utility on Windows. When compressing the files, it saves them with the file extension '.zip'. It can also be used to decompress files. It was developed by Igor Pavlov and first released on 19th July 1999.

Difference Between Freeware and Open-Source Software

Open-source software is not the same thing as freeware. Freeware is a type of software that is free to use, but the source code is not always open. For example, Google Chrome is free to use but the source code is closed and unavailable, meaning that the software cannot be modified. But, if the source code of the freeware software is open, then it is also open-source software.

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