Open Source

Most people know Open Source as free software but this is only part of the story. In 1984 Richard Stallman (RMS), a computer scientist at MIT, began the GNU project to build a complete computing environment. The great difference in his plan was in the way the source code would be handled. Programmers write their software in human readable languages such as Fortran or C++. Then compilers translate the words to a language the computer can understand. The original words are called the source code. With that code other programmers can change the program to whatever they need. Proprietary businesses don't revel their source code except under very strict non-disclosure agreements. RMS announced to the world that he would start writing software and include its source code.

More importantly he created the copyleft agreement and codified it into the General Public License, GPL. Any software program that is licensed under the GPL must have its source code available to everyone and cannot ever be removed from the GPL: once GPL always GPL. (Some companies have removed their product from the GPL but only future versions, not those already released.)

So many programmers have joined the project that today they number in the millions. Since the vast majority of the software in the world is written for a specific purpose (only a small percentage, perhaps 10%, is "store bought"), Open Source greatly helps world productivity.

There are great advantages with this scheme.

• The programs are free from a money standpoint. All you pay for is custom programming. Of course, all software has installation and support costs.
• They are also freely usable as in you can change them to what you want.
• Support can never die since any programmer who understands the source code can fix the program or change it to your new needs. There is no business to close its doors.
• Everyone can see the code so any bugs are fixed quickly.
• Also the code evolves quickly since many programmers are adding features.
• There are no backdoors into your data, which is one of the reasons that the NSA will require all government computers that must be secure to run Linux.
• Computers that run GNU are more secure and harder to hack since everyone can see and fix vulnerabilities.
• There are no license audits to take-up your employees' time.