Open Source Websites Links

Proprietary software  vs     Open source software

Proprietary software is computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use, private modification, copying, or republishing. Similar terms include "closed-source software" and "non-free software". Proprietors may enforce restrictions by technical means, such as by restricting source code access, or by legal means, such as through copyright and patents.

Open source software (OSS) began as a marketing campaign for free software. OSS can be defined as computer software for which the human-readable source code is made available under a copyright license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Open Source Definition. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open source software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user generated content. A report by Standish Group says that adoption of open source has caused a drop in revenue to the proprietary software industry by about $60 billion per year.
It may be argued that open source software has, in recent years, begun to move into the mainstream marketplace previously dominated by "shrink-wrapped" products such as Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite. The most often cited examples of alternative open source applications include the Linux operating system , the OpenOffice suite (formerly Sun's Star Office, www.openoffice.org) and Mozilla's Firefox web browser (www.mozilla.org).

The web browser market is entirely dominated by Microsoft, with its Internet Explorer accounting for between 90-95% of the most popular browsers over the last couple of years It is difficult to say what the future holds for open source software. On the one hand, the financial might and marketing scruples of the proprietary software giants, such as Microsoft, would seem to suggest that open source alternatives will remain just that ¬ an alternative to the dominant proprietary offerings. On the other hand, the increased interest in, and awareness of, open source can only bode well for its future proliferation

There is a lot of market for open source and free software as it is appreciated in the main segment as well. These softwares have a large decrease in boundaries. For instance, software such as Linux, are shifting from basic server use to desktops and laptops. Laptops of the ultra low variety were recently launched and were supported on Linux. But what are the essential fundamentals behind Open Software Development as such.

One must be cautious about the fact that Open Source is not the same as free source. Open Source Software is defined as one that can be distributed and used freely-without paying a license fee to a company. As I have spoken about this above, Linux is an operating system. So what are the functions that an open source Software allows you to perform? You can create documents and presentations, run web servers and databases, and even create graphics.

MS Office for instance, the open source solution for it is OpenOffice.org. Now, since it includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and a drawing program it can work on an interface similar to MS Office. Hence its use an Open Source Development Software. What about databases? An pen Source database comparable to Oracle is MySQL. It is the world's most popular open source database software with a consistent, and a fast performance. It is highly reliable and it is also easy to use. This is your complete solution to an Open Software Development solution for databases.

Web servers are another type of technology that uses Open source development. The world's leading web server software uses all the fundamentals of Open Source Development. The Apache HTTPD server software supports over 65% of the world's web servers. It is amazingly well adapted to function on various Operating Systems such as Windows, OS/2, unix and Linux. In non-software use, there are certain principles that have been adapted for many other forms of user generated content and technology that even may include open source hardware. Well, essentially in an open source development software many restrictions may also apply over the use, the requirements to share changes, and attribution to other authors of the work.