OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE OR FREE SOFTWARE

INTRODUCTION

Open Source Software (OSS), also called Free Software (FS), are programs whose General Public Licenses (GPLs) give users the freedom to run the program for any purpose, to study and modify the program, and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified program (without having to pay royalties to previous developers). Some OSS/FS software are good and some are technically poor. Good software may also not fit as your specific needs. OSS/FS users have control over the software. So, they can modify and maintain OSS as their needs.

Since freeware are also freeware for the users, it is not OSS/FS. A freeware is proprietary software that is available to the computer users without any cost and does not provide the rights in examine, modify, and redistribute the program’s sources code. Ni the case of proprietary (close source) software, the software company completed controls the product. The company hides security holes and fundamental flaws from the users. The users are not allowed to modify the programs to suit their own needs. This type of monopoly is removed in open source software, where anybody can or change the software for their own needs.

Advantages of Open Sources of Software
The advantages of open source software are listed below.

1. One of the major advantages of open source software is the availability of the source code and the right to modify it. open source software enables the unlimited turning and improvement of a software product. Sources code availability also makes it much easier to isolate bugs, and (for a programmer) to fix them.
2. The users have the right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code.
3. The users have the right to use the software in any way.
4. There is no single entity on which the future of the software depends. In the case of proprietary software, it the software manufacturer closes or decides to discontinue development of the product, no one has right to take the program and continue development on it. Open sources software effectively protects against this, because if the group or company that originated the codes decides to stop development, it is always possible to fund another software group to continue the maintenance and improvement, without neither legal nor practical limitations.

Disadvantages of Open Source of Software

1. Only the programmers can modify the source codes of open source software as their needs.
2. Since there is no company or groups responsible for the development for the open source software. So, there is no guarantee that development will happen.
3. There may be significant problems connected to intellectual property.