What Is Open-Source Technology?
What is Open Source Technology? A Revolution in Software Development
In the early days of computer programming, software source code was closely guarded. Technology companies viewed it as a competitive advantage, keeping their code secret. But over the past few decades a movement has sought to challenge that notion – the open source movement. So what exactly is open source software and why has it become so popular?
Definition of Open Source Software
Open source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. There are varying degrees of “openness” but key characteristics that define open source software include:
Open Distribution: Anyone can freely use, download and distribute the software
Source Code Access: The underlying source code is made available so users can study, share and modify it
Flexible Licensing: It is distributed under licenses that provide users freedoms to use, modify and share the software code.
So in summary, open source software is distributed in a transparent way that allows users to collaborate on and improve the overall code base.
A Brief History of Open Source
While the concept of free sharing of software source code now seems commonplace, just a few decades ago it was a radical notion. In the 1980s, computer scientist Richard Stallman pioneered the idea of free software – software that grants users the freedoms to use, share and modify the program. This gave rise to the GNU General Public License, or GPL, in 1989 – one of the most popular open source software licenses today.
By the late 1990s, advocates coined the related term “open source software”. The Open Source Initiative was founded to promote open collaboration and universal access to code technology. From the Linux kernel to web servers to programming languages, open source software started gaining mindshare and adoption. Today it permeates software development and serves as the foundation for much of our modern internet technology.
Benefits of Open Source Software
There are many clear advantages to the open source software development model:
Lower Cost: There are typically no licensing fees associated with open source solutions. This can provide tremendous cost savings compared to proprietary software. For example the Windows operating system costs hundreds of dollars while Linux-based operating systems are freely available.
Security: Because anyone can view and modify open source code, security vulnerabilities or bugs are spotted and fixed quickly through collective peer review. There are many more “eyes” reviewing open source projects leading to more rapid improvements in code quality and security.
Flexibility: Open source software grants users the freedom to tailor the code to their specific needs. There are no restrictions or licenses limiting this as with closed source solutions. Organizations also avoid vendor “lock-in” and their product roadmaps by controlling their own software code bases.
Innovation: Rather than waiting for updates from a single company who “owns” the code, open source projects benefit from the contributions of a global community of developers and software companies all collaborating to enhance the software. This leads to greater innovation that moves at the speed of the internet.
Key Open Source Software Applications
From operating systems to databases to programming languages and tools, open source software now pervades most computing categories:
Linux – Linux is the leading open source operating system. First developed in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, today Linux runs on everything from smartphones to cars to supercomputers. Popular enterprise distributions of Linux include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). Because the Linux kernel and distributions are open source, they have quickly evolved to support next generation computing needs.
Apache HTTP Server – httpd – Since its release in 1995, the Apache web server has dominated as the #1 web server software on the internet. Created by community of developers it now powers over 37% of active websites. Its reliability and open support model have fueled its rise.
MySQL – As a popular relational database management system, MySQL has enabled a generation of web applications by providing the database backend for popular web frameworks and content management systems like Wordpress and Drupal. Now owned by Oracle it remains open source and free to use for many use cases. Databases are critical for dynamic modern applications so the availability of MySQL and other open source databases has fueled tremendous innovation.
Wordpress – Speaking of content management systems, Wordpress has skyrocketed to become the web‘s most popular blogging and content publishing platform. Its open source model with thousands of themes, plugins and a global ecosystem of developers has been key to its runaway success powering over 40% of the world‘s websites – from basic blogs to news organizations to ecommerce stores.
TensorFlow and PyTorch – For artificial intelligence, open source frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch provide the lower-level building blocks for developing neural network-based machine learning applications including image recognition, speech and language processing, predictive analytics and self-driving cars. By open sourcing these frameworks for free usage, adoption of AI has expanded globally.
React – Created by Facebook and released as open source in 2015, React has become one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks for building fast modern user interfaces in web and mobile applications. The virtual DOM approach pioneered by React has sparked a paradigm shift in how UIs are developed today. Facebook profits not by charging for React usage directly but from greater adoption of its other developer services. Thousands more companies now build dynamic apps powered by Facebook services thanks to the availability of React’s elegant open source code base.
Open Source vs Closed Source Software
How does open source differ from traditional closed source proprietary software? With proprietary models, the software license grants users a limited right to use and access the program under restrictive terms, but the publisher retains intellectual property rights and source code ownership. Sometimes source code access is shared with strategic partners through special agreements but generally the publisher retains full control. These traditional licenses provide the publisher a way to fund ongoing investments in their software.
Conversely open source software is distributed freely with the publisher forfeiting licensing control in order to grow adoption and cultivate a community around the collaborative evolution of their creation for the greater benefit of all. Unique business models underpin this including providing experienced support and services for popular open source packages and upselling advanced tooling – but the core software remains freely shareable. Companies also strategically open source key framework and integration code to expand their reach while monetizing adjacent technologies like cloud services.
So both open and closed models persist but the accelerating pace of internet technology adoption has swung momentum behind the open approach to fuel greater software innovation and access in our increasingly connected age.
Open Source Misconceptions
Despite gaining tremendous mind share, open source software still battles common misconceptions by those more familiar with closed models:
Not Secure – There’s a notion open source software must be less secure with all that openly accessible source code for hackers to target. But empirically the opposite has proven true – precisely because anyone can inspect the source, vulnerabilities are spotted by white-hat community reviewers quicker, letting maintainers rapidly roll out security updates. High profile software defects like Heartbleed OpenSSL bug highlighted the open community’s strength to globally rally and patch affected systems compared to slower proprietary models. Open core with many eyeballs reviewing breeds security through rapid peer fixes.
Not Supported – Another misbelief considers open source as hobbyist unsupported software without any commercial backing. But for popular open source packages, numerous organizations provide distros, experienced support and custom services matching proprietary offerings. With an open model they compete to deliver the best service on a solid community platform. From Linux enterprise services by IBM, HP and Red Hat to open source databases and tools, there are tested quality options for all needs. Open unlocks paid support competition.
The Outlook for Open Source Software
Given the fundamental software development advantages, open source has reached an inflection point and will continue its expansion across IT in coming years. As software eats the world, innovation digestion demands openness. Closed software has dominated our desktop computing experience but openness fills the cloud, runs our devices and now defines our connected experiences.
All major public cloud platforms – AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud – rely extensively on open source technologies for their global infrastructure and pass these benefits to customers. Openness greases ubiquity.
Programming languages, frameworks and modeled machine learning to power modern applications have flourished through open source availability. Access allows mass skills transfer for builders to create tomorrow’s breakthroughs atop shared software science like TensorFlow and React. Community shared code pools collective advancement.
While classic proprietary software businesses will persist, virtually every software category will transition core infrastructures to open models. Open source fuels the underlying digital transformation while closed software sustains specialty sandboxes. Blending both strategies companies can “open for opportunity while closing for advantage” on higher application layers. This hybrid of open core with closed complementary value-add will dominate going forward.
As software rewires everything, no organization can afford to wall themselves off from open collaborative advancement and must balance their participation. The future of technology will build openly.
