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Common Public Views:

Open source has burst upon the software development scene as the new
paradigm of faster turnaround and more reliable software. With the
open source development model, a computer program's source code is
given away freely along with the program itself. This allows any
programmer to view, modify, and redistribute the program. By allowing
the outside world to adapt and propagate the source code, the
development lifecycle is greatly reduced and the final product is much
more stable and versatile, proponents advocate. The best thing about
Open source is that it propels innovation, as users are free to tailor
the software to suit their own needs and circulate those changes.
Most Open Source software is not developed by one single vendor, but
by a distributed group of programmers. Typically, open source software
development is guided by project maintainers who address technical or
end-user requirements rather than vendor agendas.
Nobody "owns" Open Source software, which is freely available for
download over the Internet.
Closed-source software is the kind that most people know best. For
decades, software companies have shipped their products on floppy
disks and CD-ROMs. People can install and use those programs but
cannot change them or fix them. The human-readable version of the
software: the source code is jealously guarded by the software maker.
One may think that open-source software is less secure or less
reliable than closed source. This isn't true. For example, it is now
universally accepted in the computer industry that the open-source
Apache Web server is a much more secure alternative to Microsoft's
closed-source Internet Information Server. Open source lets engineers
around the world examine the code for security flaws and other bugs.
Unlike most commercial software, the core code of such software can be
easily studied by other programmers and improved upon--the only
proviso being that such improvements must also be revealed publicly
and distributed freely in a process that encourages continual
innovation.


The Formal Framework:

Open source, by definition, means that the source code is available.
Open source software (OSS) is software with its source code available
that may be used, copied, and distributed with or without
modifications, and that may be offered either with or without a fee.
If the end-user makes any alterations to the software, he can either
choose to keep those changes private or return them to the community
so that they can potentially be added to future releases. Open Source
Initiative (OSI), an unincorporated nonprofit research and educational
association with the mission to own and defend the open source
trademark and advance the cause of OSS certifies the open source
license. The open source community consists of individuals or groups
of individuals who contribute to a particular open source product or
technology. The open source process refers to the approach for
developing and maintaining open source products and technologies,
including software, computers, devices, technical formats, and
computer languages.
Open source software, by definition, includes any program or
application in which the programming code is open and visible. The
concept of open source software dates to the earliest days of computer
programming. The term came into popular usage following a February
1998 meeting in Palo Alto, California. A group of leading free
software advocates, reacting to Netscape's announcement that it
planned to make the source code for its browser widely available, came
to the realization that open source software had to be promoted and
marketed based on pragmatic business strategies to compete effectively
against closed source vendors.