The Open Source Revolution: How It Came About

Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Title Instructor Date The Open Source Revolution What is Open Source? Open source can be described as a system, program, or software that can be modified and shared by people since it has been designed to be accessible publicly. The origin of this term is based on the context of developing a software that can entitle a certain approach to be used in the development of computer programs. Currently, a wider set of values have been designated by open source and it is currently known as ‘the open source way’ (opensource.com). It is important to note that open source products, projects, and initiatives tend to promote principles of collaborative participation, mediocracy, open exchange, transparency, rapid prototyping, and community-oriented development. This paper critically analyzes the attributes of open source, how it came about, how it pertains to my personal life, and its attributes in a broader/global sense. Authors of open source, usually allow the source code of the software to be available and accessed by other people who can view the code, learn from it, copy it, share it, or alter it. Some of the common types of open source software include the GNU Image Manipulation Program and the LibreOffice. Open source software tends to differ from other kinds of software that have source codes that can only be modified by the individuals who created the code (Schillinger). These individuals usually have an exclusive right over controlling the people who can modify the source code. These types of software are referred to as “closed source” or “proprietary”software. However, open source software can be accessed by any individual who has an interest. Just like in the case of proprietary software, open source software also has licenses that users have to agree to before using the software. Nevertheless, the licenses of open source software tend to differ greatly from the terms of proprietary licenses. How it came about The Open Source Initiative (OSI) created the “open source” label on 3rd February 1998 in a conference held in Palo Alto, California (opensource.org). 2018 marks the 20th anniversary since the founding of the OSI. OSI became a global non-profit entity tasked with promoting and protecting open source software, communities and development. OSI has also championed the freedom of software development in the society through collaboration, education, infrastructure, and development of the Open Source Definition (OSD). It also prevents other individuals and entities from abusing the ethos and ideals that are intrinsic to the open source movement. Maya Rotenberg argues that the open source revolution begun way back in the 1950s, when the first free software was developed, and it acts as the starting point of what is currently known as open source. Its roots date back to the academic realm in the U.S. when research scientists developed and released the code of the software. The software was commercialized in the 1960s and its cost increased significantly. The free early version of UNIX was developed by AT&T in the 1970s, but it was stopped in the early 1980s. The GNU project was started by Richard Stallman in 1984 and it started the Free Software Movement (Rotenbe...