Let’s talk about Open Source Software

Have you heard of the term open source software before? Wikipedia defines open source software as “computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.”

That is a lot of words right off the bat, but basically open source software is software that developers around the world have put effort into, and made it available to the public.

There are different levels of open source software, and as I’m writing this, I’m realizing this is going to be a fairly long discussion. But you can consider open source software as baseline software, and then you can start developing your own code on top of it.

I have rarely taken an open source project directly and just used the code as it is. My Dad describes open source software as “getting a free puppy.” You may get some free stuff, but it is going to take a lot of time and possibly money to get it to the point where you are totally satisfied with it’s behavior.

I realize this is a super short post, but as I wrote this I decided that I need to formulate my ideas a bit more before continuing on, so stay tuned tomorrow for a bigger discussion on open source software.