What are open source software?
What are open source software
Have you ever heard of the term "open source" and do you know what it means? What is the difference between open source and closed source software? If you had to choose between two programs, one open source and one closed source, which would you choose and why? Open source programs have become very common and you may be surprised to find out that most of the programs you use are open source programs. In this topic, I will answer all the previous questions for you and give you some examples of the most famous open source programs.
What is open source software?
Open source programs are programs that make their source code available to users, and the source code is the code commands in which the programs were written, and when this code is made available, anyone can modify these programs as they wish according to the license specified by the developers of these programs, and unlike the Open Source Software programs is a closed source that does not make its source code available and only allows official developers to modify it.
What is the advantage of open source software?
Open source programs have many advantages for software developers, and perhaps the most important advantage is the development of new programs based on open source programs. By modifying and developing this code to eventually produce a new program for you, and developers can benefit from these programs to learn more about different programming languages,
I am a regular user and not a software developer, should I be interested in open source software?
Yes, the benefits of open source software are not limited to developers, and here are the most important benefits of these programs for ordinary users:
- 1- Free and open source software is (mostly) free and this is the most important feature, but this does not mean that open source software developers do not earn money, there are several ways to earn money with open source software and one of them ways is the "donate button". must pay money.
- 2- Speed of development, unlike closed source programs that are limited to a certain number of developers, open source programs have an unlimited number of developers.Anyone can help in the development of these programs by downloading and modifying the source code and then sending his changes made to the software developers.This helps to solve the problems of open source software faster than closed source software, and the more popular the program is, the more developers there will be, and thus the speed of development will increase.
- 3- Security and privacy, since the programs are open source, the developers will not be able to put any malware or spyware because anyone can look at the source code and discover these programs, and on the contrary, the developers of closed source programs can add anything they want without fear that the Users will know about these plugins.
Examples of open source software
If you think, despite the advantages you mentioned, that closed source programs are better than open source programs, then you should rethink. as an operating system for their servers, because this system is much more secure than Windows, and we also have the Firefox and Google Chrome browsers that are among the best browsers for many users. source programs are characterized by simplicity, security and lightness of size, many people prefer these programs
