Sometime Today, Trevor Warren assembled some asciibets to say:
Open source software is different from traditional software in that it holds no secrets -- the software's 'source code' is free for the end user to examine, modify, or build on. With traditional
Not true. Open source simply gives you access to the source code. It makes no provision for the modification or redistribution of that code. Free software gives you that freedom.
The Internet itself is Open Source Software's poster child, since it was constructed of components built almost exclusively under the Open Source model. Many, in fact, have likened Linux today to the Internet in 1990 (used only by the technically savvy, seeing yearly exponential growth, completely open, and perhaps poised to take over the world).
The seeds for the Internet were sown in 1969. It grew as a large experiment and yes, was used by geeks and scientists only.
Open Source is doing what God, government, and market have failed to do. It is putting powerful technology within the reach of cash-poor
Well, not what God, or government have failed to do. It's just that corporates have tried to stop it forever. The concept of free software has been around as long as there have been programmers. Proprietary software is only about 30 years old.
Philip