H
ey there! Today we'll talk OPENLY about Open Source!!
Well let's not pretend that we don't know what the meaning of "Open Source" is...!
OPEN SOURCE: (According to Merriam Webster) of software : having the source code freely available for possible modification and redistribution.
You must have heard somewhere or the other about Github!....don't say that you are unaware of something called Linux!!...Android?!
Anyways, if you haven't been able to enlighten yourself till now, then let us get you the much needed enlightenment!
Haha!
So, What Is Open Source?
We are talking about open-source in the context of computer software...
Open-Source essentially means that the code of a particular program is openly available to the public, and in many cases, other people are allowed and encouraged to build upon it as the wish and re-distribute it the way the like..
It's a very important milestone in the improvement and development of technology. Untill the rise of Open Source, most of the software used to be owned by individuals or private firms / companies, and in order to use them the common-man was and still is charged heavily.
 | Windows is probably a very good example of a Closed-Source software. |
To buy Windows, you'll have to pay a quite a sum....of around 200$....on the other side, operating systems which are at par or even better than it are practically free...
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 | Ubuntu, and other Linux Distributions on the other hand have remained free, and probably will continue to...forever. |
Windows still continues to sell its paid Operating System...one window after another...I dunno how many we'll have to repair and remove before we finally go OS!
Wanna test Ubuntu?
Ubuntu has always been free and open-source and is becoming popular rapidly...in-case, you want to try it for yourself, you can visit this site: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
Well, Ubuntu Project is maintained by a "for profit" company called Canonical...but hey!!
Canonical only packs the real thing into a usable form...but the core of all the Linux distros is the Linux Kernel which is absolutely free...and open-source!
Meet Linus Torvalds - the father of Linux!..who created it for his own requirements...
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History of FOSS
1950-80s : it was common for computer users to have the source code for all programs they used, and the permission and ability to modify it for their own use. Software, including source code, was commonly shared by individuals who used computers, often as public domain software. More over, companies had business models that depended on hardware for profit rather than software.
Late 1960s : By the late 1960s, the prevailing business model around software was changing. A growing and evolving software industry was competing with the hardware manufacturer's bundled software products; rather than funding software development from hardware revenue, these new companies were selling software directly.
Maybe then it was okay, to portray software as a product worthy enough to be made the core of a business model, software is even more important today, but I think we have better programming tools and many more programmers that it should now be free for everyone to use, and contribute to.
... and from then on...the Open Source movement has only gained more momentum.
- 1983, Richard Stallman, member, hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change in culture of the computer industry and its users - software development for GNU operating system began in Jan 1984 Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985.
Who Funds Open-Source?
In my view, there are generally three ways in which OSS are funded.
- By "For Profits": Well, as we have seen in the case of Ubuntu, it is funded and maintained by a "for-profit" company called Canonical. The company earns its profit through other means. Similar is the case for Android. Android is also open-source, but is funded by the GOOGLE!!
- By Donations: Some software are funded by donations from the community supporting the project. For example: Tor Project, to donate visit: https://donate.torproject.org/ !
- By Passion!: Funds are not always needed, like for example in-case of small open-source projects which involve individuals contributing in their free-time rather than working full-time on the project.
Some Other Examples
1. Python
I don't think this article will be complete without Python!
 | The very popular programming language...which is growing rapidly... More over, if you haven't noticed, your computer must already be having one of these slitherines preloaded! |
Python is the brainchild of Guido Van Rossum...
 (Van Rossum at the 2006 O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON)) | ...(who) is a Dutch programmer best known as the author of the Python programming language, for which he was the "Benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL) until he stepped down from the position in July 2018. .... If you want to know more about him, don't forget to check his page on Github: https://gvanrossum.github.io/ |
When Rossum submitted a funding proposal to DARPA called "Computer Programming for Everybody" in 1999 he further defined his goals for Python stating: "Python should be open-source, so anyone can contribute to its development"
Nowadays, Python has become so popular that it is the language most asked for in job interviews! So, beware of this one, you may want to revise something!
Official Website: https://www.python.org/
2. Tor
Tor is another one of-a-kind example of OSS...
The Tor Project, Inc. is a Massachusetts-based research-education non-profit organization founded by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others.
 | The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software for the Tor anonymity network |
| Understanding Tor... |  |
Tor is a boon for those in hostile environments under vigilant eyes of strong governments intruding into the privacy and basic rights of their citizens...
and yes, it is Open Source, and being helped by Mozilla, the same company that builds the open Firefox browsers!
Official Website: https://torproject.org
Welcome to Linux!
Linux as you must have already seen in the TED talk is almost everywhere now-a-days!....it's in the Linux desktop distro that we use, Microsoft and Google use Linux, it's in the
phones that most of us use...!!
ANDROID: is free and open source software; its source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), if you still don't believe me because you think that the money you have been sheeling out on new phones, is too much and should have been a bit lesser given the Operating System is Open Source, go to this site and download Android Studio and play with whichever version of android you want (on your PC): https://developer.android.com/studio
Linux is almost everywhere, and is considered the safest Operating System, though you'll have to be ready to get your hands dirty every now and then with code and terminals!
Join The FOSS Movement with Github!
Today, in my opinion, Github is probably the hub of all that is going on in the Open-Source world. More or less every OSS today is built on Github.
 | GitHub, Inc. is a United States-based global company that provides hosting for software development version control using Git. In 2018, it became a subsidiary of Microsoft for US$7.5 billion. It offers the distributed version control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git, plus its own features. It provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project |
| Understanding Github... |  |
Is Microsoft related to Github?: well, Microsoft may have bought the company, doesn't mean that the things there are less open-source, as long as the source is available and not owned in any way by Microsoft, it is Open!! ...and hey! don't forget that Git and Github were created by Linus Torvalds (TED video above...)!
Some of the popular software built on Github include:
| Git without Linux?...Impossible, Linus Torvalds created Git...so Linux is on Git, and can be found here: https://github.com/torvalds/linux |  |
 .......reminded of something?!! | Discord Chat for Gamers... I show it here because a lot of us have met this before not realising its origins! |
| Python on Guthub?! yess!! see it here: https://github.com/python/ |  |
...and there are a zillion more which I don't know of and in any way will be impossible to share in this post!
Sorry, for the larger than usual Penguin of Linux!! But, I guess it deserves that space there!
Why care for Open-Source?
Now-a-days, everything is dependent upon software...everything is technology oriented...and many more of us know how to program than we ever knew in the history of mankind. Now, software should be treated more like a book that one creates...the only difference being that this book doesn't end when you complete reading it...it can be used, re-used a quadrillion number of times, and will never die other than becoming obsolete.
Another aspect of "soft" things is that they can copied as many times you want without a bit of effort, so why pay huge bills for things that are easy to reproduce!! ...I mean to make a trillion copies of the Windows 10 OS, Microsoft will not have to spend a penny still they sell it at a hefty 200$ per copy!
In todays world, it looks absurd, and with increasing number of programmers, some of us do have free times when we can contribute to building a better, more advanced and free world for fellow humans!
So, open-source had to happen, and it has already happened!
Now, let's share our knowledge, and push humanity higher.
That's all for this article! See you next time.
Keep Learning, Be safe!
Best,
M Medro
Glossary
OS= Open SourceOSS= Open Source SoftwareFOSS= Free and Open Source Software ("Free and open-source software" (FOSS) is an umbrella term for software that is simultaneously considered both Free software and open-source software)distro= distribution
Credits
- Image: Windows Logo: Wikipedia | Creative Commons License
- Image: Ubuntu Logo: Wikipedia | Creative Commons License
- Image: Canonical Logo: Wikipedia |
- Image: Linus Torwalds: Wikipedia |
- TED Talk, Linus Torwalds: Wikipedia, Author TED
- All other images: Wikipedia, Creative Commons License
- Youtube Video: Tor, Author: Tor Project
- Youtube Video: Github, Author: Github
References
- Ubuntu, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu
- Canonical, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_(company)
- Buy Windows, Official Site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/windows?activetab=tab%3ashopwindows10
- FOSS, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
- Guido Van Rossum, WIkipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum