Skip to Content

Glossary

a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Select a letter above to go to terms beginning with that letter.

Open source

Open source is cooperative method of developing and distributing software. The software is free to use by anyone, and the source code is freely available for any developer to work on. Why give it away for free? Well, collectively, these developers can build sophisticated software, such as Firefox, Apache, Drupal and Linux that can be genuinely competitive with commercial software backed by multinationals. Individually, each developer can use the software to greatly enhance their business.